A Series of Events
by agony-fairy
Summary: Choices that people make cause things to happen. What happens when those choices bring together Ashley and Ricky? How will their relationship begin and more importantly, how will everyone react? Takes place after Amy leaves for New York.
1. A Pancake Welcome

My first secret life fanfiction.

Please tell me if it sucks, and genuine, horrible, want to burn my eyes kind of awful, and not just a complaining about the pairing :D

**Disclaimer: I own no characters, places, or anything able to be recognized by the show.**

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**Ashley's Point of View**

"Ashley!" I heard Dad call me from the kitchen.

"Yes?" I asked, going into the kitchen, though I knew what this was about.

"Ricky is moving some of his things into Amy's room." Dad said.

Here it comes...

"We talked about this before. While Ricky is here I want the two of you to stay out of each other's way." Dad said.

"Dad, I know. You have told me this before," I said in a tired tone, "Would you like me to start recording all your warnings about boys and replay them when I get lonely too?"

"Do I have to buy the recorder?" Dad asked, actually considering it.

I rolled my eyes and said, "I was joking."

"I wasn't. That's a good idea. I'll talk to Griffin about it when he comes over tonight." Dad said.

"Griffin's coming over tonight?" I asked.

"He called earlier and we talked. He's coming over at six, the two of you can have a movies night Ricky's first night here and I'm thinking you could sleep over at Griffin's place a few times too. I like those parents of his." Dad said.

It's a sad, sad world when my dad and my gay best friend start conspiring so that I don't get the chance to talk to Ricky who is the father of my nephew, someone I possibly have a thing for, and a sort of manwhore.

"So you like his parents's parenting style and hope that they can turn me away from men?" I asked, amused.

"No, I like them because they breed men that will never try to have sex with you." Dad said grinning.

"Yeah, yeah, walk in the gay pride parade." I said.

"Oh we will." Dad said, and if possible, he grinned wider.

I rolled my eyes again, but gave him a laugh.

"Do you want pancakes?" Dad asked after a moment.

"Dad, it's four in the afternoon." I said. I didn't mention how he couldn't make decent pancakes to save his life.

"It's never too late for pancakes." Dad said while he looked through the cupboards for pancake mix.

"You know they have frozen pancakes at the store? That take very little time to make?" I asked.

"They don't taste the same." Dad said.

"True, they taste better." I said.

"They do not."

"They do." I said. At least they did the way he made them. He always made an attempt to make them into funny shapes while in the pan and they burnt, then he would agree with me that he couldn't make pancakes and we would go out and buy some from a McDonald's restaurant or in frozen packages at the grocery store, depending on the time of day, and the following day he would completely forget that a pancake incident had ever occurred and insist that he knew how to make pancakes. It was a tradition that we followed to a tee.

"They do not." Dad insisted.

"What are the two of you arguing about?" Mom asked in a surprised tone as she entered the room balancing Robbie on her hip.

"Dad's ability to make pancakes." I said.

Understanding lit up her eyes.

"Anne, tell her I can make pancakes." Dad said.

"I would, but you can't make pancakes." Mom said close to laughter.

"When have I ever not made some good pancakes?" Dad asked.

"The great pancake disaster of '03." Mom said automatically.

I started laughing. I was about eight or nine at the time and it was dad's second or third time making pancakes and Amy, Mom, and myself had gone over to the neighbour's house for a few minutes because she wanted to see us in the dresses she had bought us, she was an old woman and we reminded her so much of her darling grandchildren that mom couldn't say no, and when we came back there was a huge fire and Dad had thrown his shirt on the floor because it had caught fire...needless to say the fire department was called and my dress didn't make it out alive...whether or not that was my intent I never told...

"Those weren't pancakes!" Dad defended.

"They were pancakes!" Mom and I argued. Robbie just looked at us all funny, like we were odd. Yeah, kiddo, we have bladder control, how do you like that?

"They were not pancakes. I think that was the time I tried to make pizza." Dad said as he finally found all the ingredients to make pancakes and was putting them into the bowl. Mom and I looked at each other and back to the bowl nervously. Between the two of us she had the best shot at taking it and running away with it if necessary, but he would have a head start because she would have to take the time to pass Robbie to me. Robbie and I would then have to run to my room so I could get my camera and take pictures of her chasing him up the street, perhaps even with a spatula.

"No, the time you tried to make pizza was when the pepperoni stick got stuck up Amy's nose because you had sliced it vertically, remember?" Mom said.

Did they even watch us?

"Amy got a pepperoni stick stuck up her nose before?" I asked.

"Yeah, it took us a while to get it out, though that could have been because Amy wouldn't stop crying." Dad said.

"Not much has changed." I said, picking a blueberry from the pile he had out, he was putting those in too.

"I'll be back. Don't let him turn on the stove." Mom said in a tone vaguely like mission impossible, so quiet only I could hear.

I nodded and Mom was back shortly later without Robbie. The field was evened, or unevened, depending on how you look at it. Mom and I were silent as Dad mixed the ingredients in, the only sound that could be heard were the sounds of Robbie and John and the sound of Ricky moving something heavy.

"Just give me the batter and no one gets hurt George." Mom said, slowly moving towards him from the right side.

I swear, sometimes our family interactions were something from a clown college textbook.

Mom indicated with her left hand that was lowered by her legs that I ambush him from the other side.

I got up and slowly used the other side. I love my dad, but I also love this kitchen and I didn't want to know the fire department by name like I knew all the local police officer's names. That is what happens when 911 gets dialed too often, you begin to know the people that pick up.

"Dad, please. Put down the batter." I said in a monotone voice.

"Please George." Mom said.

Dad held the bowl closer to himself, carefully putting in a few more blueberries.

"Just let me try pl—" Dad said, but was cut off when he moved his foot, slipped on some water, and dropped the bowl, which broke, and the batter had an explosive reaction, it fireworked off at us like it was heat seeking missles. As if that wasn't bad enough, Dad slipped for a second time, and then he tried to grab me and we went down, taking down Mom as well when we knocked into her.

Ricky came in, "Hey, is everyone okay? I thought I heard a—"

Ricky stopped when he slipped as well and fell right on top of me, using his arms to support himself as soon as he could.

"George! This is why you do not make pancakes!" Mom shouted.

I rolled my eyes and looked up at Ricky who was grinning that stupid half smile of his. Ricky's body was against mine, not entirely on top of me because his hands were on the floor on either side of my head, and his lips weren't too far away either, and I could tell he was thinking it because his eyes flicked to them a couple times. The thought that my parents were here though was a sobering fact though.

"Can you get off me now?" I asked after I could feel my dad staring at me. Truth was, I wasn't completely uncomfortable.

"Yeah." Ricky said as he pushed himself off his arms and caught up. Ricky reached out with a hand and helped me up.

Mom was already up and Dad was just getting himself up now that Ricky was off me.

"So what happened?" Ricky asked.

"We were trying to prevent a pancake disaster." Mom said.

"This is your prevention plan?" Ricky asked.

"Oddly enough, the most successful." I said.

"Really?" Ricky asked.

"Really." I said.

"Yeah, no ambulance or fire department needs to be called. A success." Mom said.

Mom was enthusiastic, she held her hand up for a high five. I figured, just this once, I can deal with a little hyperness. I high fived her.

"I'm telling you, the two of you didn't need to go to such an extreme." Dad said as he carefully walked away, probably to shower.

"We did." Mom said, following him.

I laughed and took inventory of myself. My hair had splats of the pancake batter in it, my clothes were covered in it, and I was sure that there was a blueberry in my bra, but I wasn't going to mention that to Ricky.

Ricky was laughing while looking at me.

"What?" I asked.

I swear if he was laughing at the way I looked, he shouldn't be. The tips of his hair were tinted with batter, his socks were dragging down because they had been drenched in batter and his black jeans looked like they had started out the colour of the batter, his hands were gloved in it, and his cheek also had some batter on it, he was in no position to laugh at me.

"You look cute." Ricky said.

I internally groaned, no girl wanted to ever be deemed 'cute', especially if that girl was covered in pancake batter.

"So this is a good look on me then?" I asked jokingly.

"Of course, you should wear it more often. You'll definitely turn some heads." Ricky said smiling. Enough with that smile of his already!

"I'll think about it." I said.

The two of us moved at the same time and with the slippage of the batter and out inability to not bang into each other we fell...again. This time I was on top of him, straddling him actually.

I sighed and said, "I think this is like quicksand. Whenever we try to get out we get pulled back in."

"It's alright with me. I'm comfortable under here." Ricky said grinning. It was then that I remembered our position.

"Okay, getting up now." I said, attempting to get up.

"It's alright with me. Take your time. I rather like this position." Ricky said.

"I'm sure you do." I said, rolling my eyes for at least the third time that day.

"Yeah, I do."

I blushed involuntarily and tried to move my feet.

"What? Are you uncomfortable?" Ricky asked smiling.

I glared at him and pushed off of him and walked down the hall, and as I was walking I shouted, "Last one in the kitchen has to clean up! My rules!"

I could feel his eyes watching me but I went inside my room, collected my things, and waited until my parents were done with their showers.


	2. Ricky's Stalker

**Disclaimer: In no way do I own any characters, places, or things belonging to the show, but I do own Ethan and Camelia. What can I say? I was in the mood to write in crazy/mean people.**

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**Ashley's Point of View**

I didn't see Ricky for the rest of that night, Griffin had come over not even two minutes after I was out of the shower, and Ricky didn't show up in the living room much. I hadn't run into him at all today either, which was strange considering that it was a school day and all.

"Ash, sleeping over at my place tonight?" Griffin said, walking up to me and putting an arm around my shoulders.

"No." I said.

"Why?" Griffin asked confused.

"Because you and my dad are playing a game of 'Ashley and Ricky Stay Away' and whoever can keep us away from each other for the longest time earns a gold star." I said in an annoyed tone.

"We just want to keep you two from starting a relationship." Griffin said.

"We won't start a relationship. I don't do the Romeo&Juliet thing." I said as Griffin and I walked into our third period English class.

"I don't know about that. The two of you are the star-crossed lovers, and he is the enemy." Griffin said as we sat in our usual seats at the back.

"So now Ricky's the enemy? Don't you think that at some point we can stop referring to him using terms like 'devil' and 'enemy'?" I asked.

"Maybe, if those terms stopped making perfect sense." Griffin said.

"Huh." I said.

Before Griffin could say anything else, a supply teacher came in. The teacher had reddish-brown hair, blue eyes, looked late thirties – early forties, and was in a wheelchair.

"So, my name is Ms. Landins" The teacher said, writing her name on the middle of the board.

I kid in the class, Ethan, raised his hand and I knew that whatever he had to say wouldn't be a good thing. Ethan was the kind of guy that had general popularity just because he could bounce a ball and talk big, the kind of jerk that was rude to all the girls but still got them to look in his direction. The kind of guy that I got annoyed with so easily just because he acted like an arrogant jerk all the time.

"Yes?" Ms. Landins asked.

"I can't see the name on the board." Ethan said.

Griffin and I both glared at him, as did a few other people, but of course all his friends found it so funny that he was practically shoving a woman's disability in front of her face.

Ms. Landins took a deep breath and erased the name on the board and put it a little higher, but she knew as well as everyone else did that he could see it. Ethan and his friends only occupied the second and third row chairs and they weren't short guys. That, and Ms. Landins wasn't a name that could easily be misspelled or even said wrong, so if he couldn't see it he would still know how to say it.

"I still can't see it." Ethan said.

This is why supply teachers always get annoyed easily, the students suck and then complain when the supply teachers leave notes behind or yell as if they had no clue why that happened.

"Once again, my name is _Ms. Landins._" Ms. Landins said, emphasizing her name.

"Sorry, I didn't catch that." Ethan said, putting his hand behind his right ear.

Before she could say anything I found myself getting up, going to the board, erasing her name and re-writing it on the very top of the board and then walked back to my seat.

I had chalk dust on my hand and as I passed Ethan I blew some of it in his face and asked in a sickly sweet tone, "High enough for you?"

Ethan glared at me and I glared right back at him, almost daring him to try anything. I was more than willing to fight with him on this. I tried to do the right thing according to me, and sometimes that led me to fights or problems, but it was something I tried to do. That being said, if Ethan wanted to say stuff or get upset with me, fine. If he wanted to be an idiot, fine. Ethan turned away from me and slid back into his seat sulking.

I walked back to my seat and saw the teacher mouth _'Thank you' _to me and I gave her a slight nod.

Twenty minutes later Griffin jokingly whispered, "Are you planning on beating him up after school is over?"

"I don't think he's worth a suspension." I said.

"Aw... I was hoping to see something interesting today." Griffin said pouting, but then brightened and asked, "What about Adrian? Is she keeping the baby? Is she talking to Ricky?"

"As far as I know they aren't speaking and she is getting an abortion this weekend." I whispered.

"That is five days from now." Griffin said.

"You gossip like Lauren and Madison, you know that?"

"Oh god, please take that back. I'm not as bad as them am I?"

"Well maybe not as bad, but bad just the same." I said.

"That deeply disturbs me."

Class passed by much in that same fashion, Griffin and I whispered while completing our work, and Ethan glared at me a few times, but didn't say anything to me or try anything. Fifteen minutes before the bell was supposed to ring Ms. Landins called me to where she was sitting.

"Yeah Ms. Landins?" I asked.

"Can you please was the board? I wouldn't ask but..." Ms. Landins trailed off and I agreed to washing the board for her and took a hall pass in search for a bucket of water and a sponge in the janitor's closet.

When I opened the door, it hit someone on the other side and I heard a muffled 'ouch' and some stuff falling.

"Sorry. Are you okay?" I asked the person on the ground.

"Yeah, Ashley, I'm fine." A voice I recognized as Ricky said. I closed the door.

Hm, well about time he fell to the ground first. Ricky got up and leaned back against the wall.

"So what brings you to the janitor's closet? A little quickie during class with a girl? Maybe a mop stealing adventure?" I asked smirking down at him.

"I'm ditching class." Ricky said.

"You're ditching class, yet you haven't even left the building... while in the janitor's closet." I said.

"I'm avoiding Camelia." Ricky confessed.

"Who?" I asked while looking for a bucket.

"I slept with her once and now she is clinging to me like Grant clings to you." Ricky said.

"You mean she calls you, shows up randomly, and all around smashes a glass to the ground if she sees you talking to another girl?" I said as I picked up the bucket and started the hunt for a sponge.

"She brought me flowers. Apparently the name meaning of Camelia in some country is a flower or at least has flower in the meaning." Ricky said.

"How many flowers?" I asked.

"I didn't really count, but as many as she could get in my locker."

I started laughing and said through my laughter, "That's funny."

"No it's not. Camelia somehow managed to get the combination, and do I look like the kind of guy that wants flowers and cards and new shoes?" Ricky asked, obviously upset.

"She got you new shoes too?" I asked, laughing harder now.

"They're Italian." Ricky said, his scowl more prominent when tears welled up in my eyes from laughing so hard.

"So you've been hiding here all day?" I asked.

"In between classes and this entire period because it's a class I share with her." Ricky said.

"Why don't you tell her that it was just a one night thing?" I asked.

Ricky flinched and said, "I did."

"And?" I prompted.

"She laughed, pinched my cheeks, and said I was so cute in my denial." Ricky said.

A whole new fit of laughter came over me, "See. This is why you shouldn't have so many one night stands. Some of them like attachments."

"This is why you shouldn't sleep with Grant." Ricky said.

"I won't, and I told him this morning that we would make better friends."

"Why? Not that I'm not happy."

"He was too clingy. I don't do clingy, sometimes I just need to be by myself." I said, filling the bucket halfway with water and dropping the sponge in.

It was Ricky's turn to laugh.

"Ricky, you're the one with the stalker that bought you Italian shoes, flowers, and cute little cards that probably said something like, 'I love you. Please be mine.' clearance half-off old valentine's day cards. Okay, just so we are clear, you are on a whole other level of stalked." I said.

"Hey, but I'm safe here. She doesn't like the smell, it makes her gag."

"Have fun. If you have another class with her today at least clean the sink in here." I said, opening the door and leaving, the bell would ring any minute and I would be late for my next class if I didn't hurry.

I made it back to class just as the bell rand and Ms. Landins said that she would write me a note for my next class so that I wouldn't get in trouble. As my English class left, I began washing the board and as I washed it I said, "Usually the board is cleaned at the end of the day, or at least during lunch."

"I know, but this period the class is going to the library to select a poem and begin their in depth analysis." Ms. Landins said.

I nodded and as everyone in the next class filed in I continued my washing and after Ms. Landins had introduced herself and explained where they were spending the period without difficulty, I left, having finished.

The rest of the day passed relatively normal, at least as normal as it got around here, which, when I think about it, wasn't all that normal. Griffin and I did pass by Ricky's locker of flowers a few times though. I didn't mention the conversation Ricky and I had had in the janitor's closet, Griffin wouldn't like it, so I just let him ponder how the garden that was blossoming in Ricky's locker got there.

* * *

"She bakes." Ricky said as he placed a plate of cookies on the table. I looked up from the book I was reading and stared at him and then the cookies and said, "I am not eating them. I don't trust it."

Mom and Dad were out for the night, something about dating or whatever and Ricky and I were left alone to babysit. I guess Dad lost the game, or Griffin did, depending on whose shift it was.

"This has to end. It has been one day. Only one day of her with her shoes, flowers, cards, cookies, and pinching of my cheeks. It has to end, because if it doesn't I will hurt someone."

The doorbell rang and I went to get it, but instead of a person there, right in front of the door was a dead rat, decomposing, and a little card was placed on top of it, blood spatters and all.

_**Ashley,**_

_**I request that you please stop your 'friendship'**_

_**with Ricky. I also ask that you please do not**_

_**take offence at the rat, I found him and thought of you.**_

_**Perhaps one day when Ricky and I are together you may**_

_**attend our wedding, but for now I ask that you do not**_

_**make the same choices as your sister when it pertains to Ricky.**_

_**-Camelia**_

I almost threw up at the sight of the rat, but instead I walked back into the kitchen and grabbed Ricky by the arm, brought him to the door, and told him to read the card.

"Ashley..." Ricky looked at me.

"She gags at a janitor closet but can tolerate putting dead rats in front of people's doors!" I shouted at him.

"What do you want me to do!" Ricky shouted back.

"Fix it! Before she hires someone to kill me!"

"How?" Ricky asked.

"I don't know how! But I don't want dead things on my doorstep." I said.

I picked up the plate of cookies and threw everything out into the garbage, and if we weren't in a house with two children I would have lit it on fire for good measure, but as it happens we were, and I couldn't.

I took the broom and got the thing away from the door and into a plastic garbage bag. One thing was obvious, things were about to get a lot more interesting, and not in a good way.


	3. Pain

Ignore if you didn't watch the last episode or don't like to read venting... A few things to say about the last episode about EVERYONE. Hello, out of character, and THEY MAKE THE DAMN SHOW. They made Ashley so vengeful and whiny that it didn't even feel like her and they made Ricky put his foot in his mouth so many times that it was ridiculous. Adrian flirting with her doctor is like making her go backwards on her accomplishments for this series and actually go all the way back to before the series in developing her character. Grace, how was she ever described as popular? She was in the middle of Madison, Lauren, Jack, and Jesse/Jessie time. Enough said there. And Ben. WTF? There is character growth but now he's all complaining about a male doctor and not wanting him to touch Adrian, loving Amy, but kissing Grace? He gets around almost like Ricky now. When did Ben become hot? And remember people, his maturing moment was getting his braces off.

**DISCLAIMER: I own nothing, zip, zero, anything you recognize... NOT MINE.**

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**Ashley's Point of View**

Before I went to bed I made sure Ricky locked both doors to the house, not wanting Ricky's stalker to go in while any of them were asleep. I locked the garage door too. Ricky said that he would handle it, but if he didn't and I got left anymore 'gifts' then I would be calling the police. Leaving dead creatures and cards had to be some form of lawbreaking, at the very least something to do with harassment.

I rolled over onto my back and winced in pain. I had been getting a horrible pain in my stomach all night and was unable to sleep because of it. This wasn't the first time I had gotten this type of pain, a week or so ago it was exactly the same pain in exactly the same place, but now it was back and this time with more force. I had had the pain for a day or two then, and I really wasn't looking forward to it again.

Another sharp pain hit me and I groaned in complete and total agony. The pain was a little bit below my ribcage. I sat up and felt like screaming at the pain it caused. I was never one to admit pain, or weakness, or one for whining, but I wanted to go run to my dad and cry until he made the pain go away, and that was saying something. I wouldn't though, I would just wait for it to pass like it did last week and hope it never came back again, nobody would notice anyway. If I wasn't outright telling someone something then nobody bothered. Usually I didn't mind, but right now I really did.

I took a few deep breaths and checked my phone for the time. It was 1:30 in the morning, and that meant that I hadn't slept fofr the two and a half hours that I had been trying to, and that I had been in pain for almost five hours. I groaned again, this time in annoyance, and put the phone back next to my pillow.

Since I wasn't likely to get any sleep I made my way to the spot next to the door where my backpack was. I picked it up and silently cursed the teachers for all assigning a test or homework that required the use of twenty pound books. I turned on the light and then walked to my bed and spilled out all the contents of my backpack onto the bed. I put away everything that wasn't garbage or something I could read or work on to pass the time. I tossed out all the garbage in the garbage bin that was in my room and then started reading _Macbeth. _That should keep me busy until at least six when the doors to the house would likely be unlocked. I could finish the act we were supposed to read, summarize, and then describe it, and then do that for the rest of the acts and be homework free all week.

By six in the morning I had decided that the only hardcore woman Shakespeare had ever written was Lady Macbeth. I mean sure, she was sadistic and all, but she knew what she wanted for her and her husband. That, and she wasn't as vain as most of the other women Shakespeare wrote about.

Careful to avoid putting unnecessary pressure on my stomach, I got up and put everything away in my backpack. I only needed to slip on a pair of sandals because I had on a white tank top and grey sweatpants. I unlocked my door and painfully made my way outside and then through the kitchen door, which was now thankfully unlocked.

Mom was in the kitchen. She had on her workout clothes so undoubtedly I would be watching Robbie this morning since normally Mom woke up first and looked after him while Dad slept as long as he could.

"Ashley, what are you doing up this early?" Mom asked.

"Couldn't sleep." I said, supporting myself against the counter.

"Oh." Mom said, looking through her gym bag, not paying much attention to me, "Can you watch Robbie when he wakes up? I want to go to the gym."

Oh yes, I had no idea that you wanted to go to the gym. The clothes and bag weren't enough to give me the hint.

"Yeah, sure." I said, trying for a smile, but got a grimace instead.

Not even the slightest bit of attention.

"Thanks, Ashley." Mom said, grabbing her keys off the table and running out the door, gym bag in hand.

"No problem." I muttered too late. I could open a babysitting business. I had babysat enough to certainly become good at it, and babysitting all the time just about made sure I didn't have much of a life. Griffin, however, believed that the cause was my anti-social attitude more than the constant diaper smell.

I looked in the fridge for something to drink, but found only milk. Apparently nobody bothered to go grocery shopping. I found a clean glass and poured some milk and drank it. I put the milk back in the fridge and put the now empty glass in the sink. Almost as if on cue, Robbie cried. I made my way to the nursery where Robbie was and picked him up. I bit the inside of my cheek to prevent myself from making a sound and waking John up.

I carried Robbie into the living room and started making his food, not hard, but not fun either. A little over twenty minutes later, Robbie was fed and some of my pain was gone.

Robbie and I sat down together and watched some TV. Elmo, a classic TV show.

I set Robbie up against some pillows that way I wouldn't have to hold him and got comfortable.

* * *

"You need a ride to school or are you ditching?" Ricky asked.

I opened my eyes fully and noticed that I had a blanket over me and Robbie wasn't next to me.

"Robbie? Where is he?" I asked worriedly.

"Fine. I woke up a little while after you had fallen asleep and picked him up. He fell back asleep too." Ricky said.

"I shouldn't have fallen asleep." I said, getting up and then taking a sharp intake of breath at the renewed pain in my stomach.

"You okay?" Ricky asked.

"Uh...yeah." I said, trying to blink away the tears that had sprung to my eyes.

"You didn't sound fine." Ricky said.

"Drop it." I snapped. I walked to the kitchen and felt Ricky's eyes on me the entire way as he followed me.

"Did you sleep okay?" Ricky asked.

"Not really. What time is it?" I asked, turning to face him with a hand on the counter.

"A quarter to eight in the morning." Ricky answered. "Does your head hurt?"

"No." I responded. "If I get ready in fifteen minutes can I get a ride to school after we drop John off?"

"Yeah, hurry. Do you have a fever?" Ricky said.

"No I don't, Dr. Underwood. I'll meet you in the driveway in fifteen minutes." I said, effectively ending the conversation. I walked out the door and went to my room. I put on a dark blue shirt and a pair of dark blue jeans. I also put on my favourite necklace. It was a silver 14K white gold & diamond heart shaped locket. Dad's mother had left it for me when she died, Amy was really upset that I got it and she didn't, but I didn't remember that. I was only six or so when the woman died and I wasn't even allowed to wear the necklace until I was twelve. I liked it though, and it held a family value to me. Sometimes I wore it as a bracelet or under my shirt, but the majority of the time I kept it in my backpack or purse.

I brushed my hair quickly and put on a little lip gloss. My teeth were okay, I'd just have to brush them after school or something. I wasn't really one for morning breath anyway.

I put on a pair of black flats and grabbed my backpack and walked out my door. Ricky was putting John in his car seat when I walked up.

I opened the door and my elbow accidentally hit my stomach and I squeezed my eyes shut for a few moments in pain. Ricky noticed. Of course he did.

"Ashley, how bad are you really hurting?" Ricky asked, closing John's door and staring at me.

"Not too bad. Let's go." I said.

"Ashley, you can't even fake feeling fine. That's a sign that something's wrong." Ricky said.

"Are you giving me a ride to school or not?" I asked tiredly. I was running on a little over an hour of sleep, and I was not in the mood for crap. Either I was getting a ride to school or I wasn't.

Ricky didn't answer, just walked around to his side of the car and opened his door and motioned for me to get in. I got in and closed the door.

We were halfway to the church when Ricky started talking.

"Get your dad to take you to the doctor. He will if you ask." Ricky said.

"Ricky, I will ask, but this will pass just like last time." I said, before realizing my mistake.

"Last time?" Ricky asked.

"A couple days last week. It passed, just like it will this time." I told him.

We hit a pothole in the road and I couldn't help the few tears that escaped when I shifted violently.

"Ashley?" Ricky sounded surprised and unsure. He'd seen me after I cried but never really as I cried.

"Just drive." I muttered, hating how pained my voice sounded.

Ricky did as he was told and we drove to the church in silence. It was a comfortable silence, despite Ricky's worry for me. Ricky really wasn't making my possible feelings for him any easier with his worry or flirting...I hated that word.

"I'll go in with him. Just stay here." Ricky said.

Like I'm going somewhere...

"Okay." I said. If he was offering to take in John and I wouldn't be required to move, I was all for it.

I took a few deep breaths and decided that I would go to the doctor. I did want the pain to go away.

I must have fallen asleep again because when I opened my eyes again I was at school and Ricky was trying to wake me up without touching me.

"Ashley!" Ricky said loudly.

"What!" I said, just as loudly.

"The first bell is about to ring. We need to hurry." Ricky said.

I nodded and asked, "How's my hair?"

"A little messy, but it works for you." Ricky said.

I gave a little nod and he moved out of the way, allowing me to get out of the car.

Ricky walked slowly behind me, probably wanting to make sure that if anything happened he would be there.

The morning classes passed by. Most people didn't care to notice how I was feeling. Griffin did notice that something was wrong, but didn't notice how painful it was, and that was only because I avoided sudden movements that would hurt more. My teachers also did notice that something was wrong and I just told them I wasn't feeling too well.

I was walking out of math class with Griffin and some girl whose name I didn't know when I ran to the closest garbage can and threw up.

"Oh my God!" The girl shrieked, of course drawing everyone's attention, "Are you pregnant?"

Damn. This was one of those times where if Amy had never gotten pregnant I wouldn't have people staring at me. Pregnancy wouldn't be on the top of the list and I really didn't feel like announcing to the world that I was a virgin. I really didn't.

Madison and Lauren were in the hallway, and of course they started talking about this. I could practically see them trying to come up with who a possible father would be in their heads. People alternated between staring at me and talking with their friends about me for a minute before I looked up and yelled, "NOT PREGNANT! SICK!"

Everyone kept talking and I heard a comment someone said, "Yeah...morning sickness."

Oh. Crap. Maybe I should have told Ricky that I was ditching the day.

Griffin moved so that he was right next to me and he handed me a tissue to wipe my mouth clean. This didn't go on my top ten moments of embarrassment, but if I extended the list to fifteen it would be number twelve.

Griffin lead me outside the school and I could hear Madison talking to Jack, who had appeared beside her, "Do you think he's really gay?"

"Not if he's the father." Lauren said.

The location of our math class was both bad and good. Good because it was close to the main exit and bad because it was located in the main hallway where everyone usually was right before lunch.

Once we were outside Griffin spoke, "You're not really pregnant right? You'd tell me if you had sex, wouldn't you?"

"No I'm not pregnant and there is no way in hell that I am." I said.

"Okay...so...why did you throw up?" Griffin asked.

"I know that this might be hard for the people around here to believe, but I AM SICK!" I said angrily.

"Okay. Relax." Griffin said.

"I can't relax. My stomach feels like it's made of metal that people are melting and twisting and welding, I now have a headache from lack of sleep, and everyone thinks I am pregnant. Relax? You're really telling me to relax, oh wise one?"

"Why don't we get Adrian and ditch the afternoon? She can take us to a clinic and you can get checked out." Griffin suggested.

"No, not after what happened in there." I said.

"You want to go back in today feeling the way you do and with what everyone thinks?"

"I have to. If I don't, everyone will just think that they're right and will start suggesting baby names."

"People suggested baby names when Amy was pregnant?" Griffin asked, not seeing the point at all.

"GRIFFIN!" I shouted.

"Okay, but we're spending lunch out here." Griffin said.

"That's fine. I don't think that I can eat anyway."

* * *

School that afternoon was almost unbearable. People were looking at me all afternoon. If people weren't there at the big show, their friends were, and that made the gossip version of it all the better. Even my teachers were looking at me like I was a whole different person. At least I could sympathize with Amy better now.

When I got home that afternoon I poured myself a glass of milk and did what little homework I had while I babysat John. It wasn't too bad and the milk seemed to help with the pain a little bit.

The door opened, Ricky came in, and the door slammed closed.

"Bad day?" I asked. Then I smelled him, he smelled like perfume and not a light scent that suggested that he was with a girl, but a smell that made it seem like he bathed in the perfume.

"Very." Ricky said.

"I take it that you talked to your stalker and she didn't understand well." I said.

"She sprayed me with her perfume to mark me as 'hers'." Ricky said.

"How much spray did she use?" I asked.

"Almost half the bottle." Ricky said.

"See, some dogs pee to mark their territory, Camelia, however, uses perfume to mark her territory." I said, coughing a little.

"Hey, about today...are you..." Ricky tried, but didn't seem able to form the words.

"No. I'm not pregnant. And if I have to pee on a stick in the bathroom and gather everyone in the school gym to see the results to prove it, I will."

Ricky looked relieved.

* * *

:D The people in that school have nothing better to do than gossip. Okay, so I liked the part where Ricky's bio mother comes back so I will be adding that, with my own changes of course :P and you'll find out what is wrong with Ashley in the next few chapters, either chapter six or seven.

**Link to Ashley's Locket in Profile! And just so you know, I found it online and thought it was so pretty that I had to include it in a way that would make sense for her to have something so pricey. So the timing is probably very off, but I don't care.**


	4. Ashley's Advice

**Ricky's Point of View**

Three days. That was how long Ashley had been sick and in pain so far. Three days since the pregnancy rumour spread around, the baby father rumours, the sickness at school, and the bets had been made. Three days of Ashley in pain and there wasn't anything that I could do about it. I loved Ashley, and not in a sister way. I could lie to myself and everyone else, but that was how it really was. I didn't know how much or how little, all I knew was that I did and I couldn't do anything about that either. I was helpless for everything that involved her, and it was killing me.

I was spending the night at my apartment because Ashley, Anne, George, and Robbie went to go see Anne's mother yesterday because she was sick and would be getting back today just before school started. I stared at the ceiling, hoping to sleep, but knowing I wouldn't. I rolled over on my side and looked at the wall I was facing. The position was familiar to me, being on my side with a blanket almost smothering me, I had slept almost every night like this when I was younger. Praying for a nice quiet sleep, but knowing that it would never come. I knew that the worst thing that could happen to me tonight was probably not getting enough sleep and being cranky later on.

There was a knock on the door and as I was getting up I thought about who it could be. Not many people actually showed up without an invite at close to two in the morning without some problem going on, and I was not in the mood for problems.

I swung open the door and saw the second last person in the entire world that I wanted to see, only making it to second last because her ex-husband was last.

"Hello, Ricky. Are you going to let me in?" My biological mother asked. I wasn't sure if I wanted to even let her in. Why was she even there? There was no possible reason she had to show up. I didn't want or even need her to be here so why the hell was she?

"Why are you here?" I asked.

"I wanted to see you." My _mother_ replied.

"What for?" I asked, refusing to let her through the doorway until I had a clear reason as to why she was even there.

"I'm going back to prison, Ricky." My birth mother said.

I made a move to close the door. I didn't want her around me or my son, especially if she had drugs on her. It was a slight lie, some part of me did want her to be around me, but if she was going to be the same person she was when I was a kid growing up, then no.

"It's not like that!" My birth mother shouted, seeing that I was going to close the door.

"Didn't you say you were going back to prison?" I asked.

"Yes, but—"

"Then it is like that." I said.

"I'm not going back for drugs."

"Then why are you going back?" I asked.

"Can we please talk inside?" My birth mother asked again.

I frowned, but as long as she didn't have drugs on her, she was allowed to come in, but if I saw anything illegal she would have to leave.

I moved out of the doorway hesitantly, she walked in and then sat on the couch.

"Well, that could have gone better." My birth mother said with a slight smile.

"Glad that one of us can smile." I said. "Why are you going back to prison?"

This felt like a phone call that wouldn't end. One of those phone calls where you have one goal only when you call but the other person insists on talking about everything and asking question after question so the phone call would be longer than it ever would have been if you had just gotten your answer in the first three seconds of the call. Yeah, one of those.

"I met with my parole officer..." My biological mother trailed off.

"And?" I prompted, wanting to get this over with.

"I forgot to take my gun out of my purse."

"You kept a gun in your purse?" I asked, my voice rising a little higher than normal.

"My life is dangerous, Ricky, okay?"

"Yeah, even more so with a gun." I said.

My birth mother chose to ignore that and said, "I have to turn myself in later today."

"Okay, then why are you here?" I asked.

"I thought that maybe we could spend some time together and then you could help me turn myself in."

"I have school today." I said.

"Right. After school is done?" My birth mother asked, hopeful.

"Sure." I said. I could practically taste the bitterness in that one word.

My birth mother flinched away a little, but didn't show any hurt. Although our relationship had improved a little since I went to see her, it still wasn't close to what was considered a family relationship. I couldn't trust her, and I wouldn't anytime soon. I did, however, let her sleep in my room and made the couch for myself. My birth mother had said that I didn't need to do that and she could take the couch, but I disagreed. If my birth mother was staying with me not even 24 hours before going back to prison, I could manage with the couch. It was a weird relationship that I had with my birth mother, but I still felt the need to take care of her.

I knew that I wasn't going to get any sleep after that so I called Ashley, knowing that she'd be awake from the pain or from the noise of the streets if they were driving back already.

Sure enough, Ashley answered on the first ring, "Hey, Ricky."

"Hey, you feeling alright?" I asked.

"No, not really." Ashley said.

Ashley had given up on lying to me. Ashley very obviously was in pain and the only reason that she hadn't gone to a doctor was because George and Anne were too concerned about Anne's mother, Robbie, and their own lives to notice her, even when she was right in front of them.

"You got to miss half a day of school yesterday, and it's Friday, the last day of school before the weekend." I said, hoping that it would cheer her up a little before I told her about my biological mother being around.

"What's wrong?" Ashley asked.

"What?" I asked, genuinely confused.

"You're trying to grasp at straws to make me feel better, something isn't right." Ashley explained.

"Ash, is it that hard to believe that I'm just trying to make you feel better just because I want you to feel better?" I asked.

"No, but you're working with very little, so, yes." Ashley said.

I breathed out and said, "My mother came to my apartment a little over an hour ago."

"Okay, your biological mother came to visit you? Why?" Ashley asked.

I felt a small smile form on my face and it took me a moment to realize why. I hadn't said whether or not it was my foster mother or my biological one, Ashley just knew without me needing to tell her.

"She's going back to prison because she had a gun in her purse when she met with her parole officer and she wants to spend time with me." I said.

"What are you going to do?" Ashley asked.

"I'm going to ask Bunny to keep an eye on her and then drive her to prison where she will turn herself in." I said, knowing fully that that wasn't what Ashley meant by her question.

"Ricky, I meant about spending time with her."

"Go to school and then ask if I can change shifts at work until I take her to turn herself in?" I said, though it came out as more of a question.

"I'm not going to tell you what to do, but she's your mom—"

"She may have given birth to me, but she is not my mom." I snapped at her and immediately felt bad about it.

"Ricky, just like having more than one best friend, you can have more than one mom. A mom is someone who cares about you, and your birth mother has to care about you at least a little bit to have showed up at your door knowing that there was a good chance that you would tell her to leave and slam it in her face. I also know that family is who you care about, and whether you like it or not you care about her, and care for her, otherwise, when she had showed up at your door you would have slammed it in her face." Ashley said.

I knew she was right, and I was both happy and upset that she was. Ashley, in all her abilities and strengths, was the one person that I could never have, and that upset me because she knew me better than anyone else ever had. I was happy that at least one person understood me. See, I was helpless when it came to her.

"Ashley, I know you won't tell me what to do but what do you think I should do?"

"I think that you should do what you think is best for both you and her. She is your mom, and yes she has made mistakes, but do you think that she isn't sorry and that she doesn't deserve another chance?"

"She has had so many chances." I said.

"I know, but you don't have to tell her all your deepest secrets, you could start small. Your mother is going back to prison, Ricky, you have limited time as it is. If you want, work a little at it. A phone call here and there from prison, a picture, maybe a visit. All anyone wants is to have someone." Ashley said.

"Even you?" I asked.

"Even me." Ashley answered.

"I thought you didn't need anyone."

"You'd be surprised."

"Where are you?" I asked. I hadn't thought about asking sooner, though I supposed that I should have especially if she was with her parents.

"Just about to leave Mimsy's place actually." Ashley said.

"Okay, get back here safe."

"I will, bye."

"Hey, Ash?"

"Yeah?"

"Thanks."

"You're welcome. Bye."

Ashley hung up first and then I did. I thought about what she had said and decided that maybe I could try a little. It would go very slowly, but I could work on a relationship with my mother. If my mother wanted one that was.

"Do you love her?"

I almost jumped off the couch in surprise. I turned around and my mother was leaning against the wall looking at me, and by the looks of things my mother had been there a while.

"What?" I asked.

"Your girlfriend." My mother tried to clarify.

Okay, so she thought Ashley was my girlfriend. I wished that Ashley was, but she wasn't and probably wouldn't be.

"I don't have a girlfriend." I said.

"So that girl, Ashley, isn't your girlfriend?"

I shook my head.

"Well, then you call your girls that are friends very early and talk about some personal things." My mother said.

"How long were you listening?" I asked.

"Since the time where you got upset at her for calling me your mom." My mother answered.

"You heard what she said?" I asked.

"Well, no, but I heard enough to think that she wants you to try to give me another chance." My mother said.

"Only if I feel like you deserve one. Ashley won't get mad if I do or don't. All Ashley wants is for me to make a decision that I feel is right and one that I won't regret."

"So, back to my first question, do you love Ashley?" My mother asked.

I was silent for a little while, and apparently that was enough for my mother to assume that I did love Ashley.

"So why isn't she your girlfriend if you love her?" My mother asked. "Does she have a boyfriend?"

"She is Amy's sister." I said.

"As in, mother of your son, Amy?"

"Yes, as in Ashley is my son's aunt."

"Oh, wow."

"Yeah, see my problem?"

"Uh huh."

* * *

I got a few hours of sleep after that, talking to Ashley had helped me some, and I called Bunny once it was seven in the morning. I had offered my mother my car, but she refused. Instead, my mother needed some money for cigarettes and asked if I could somehow ask if she could work in the shop for the day. I had called Bunny and had told her about it and she asked if I was alright and told me that it was alright and that she would come in early so that I could leave for school on time.

I put John in his car seat and buckled him in. As I was walking around to the driver's door my phone rang. Caller ID, _Ashley._

"Hey, Ashley." I said.

"Uh, hey. I need a ride to school. Dad left for the store and Mom went to the gym after dropping Robbie off at daycare." Ashley said.

"Yeah, I'll be there in fifteen minutes." I said.

"Thanks." Ashley said, and then she hung up.

I got in my car, drove to the Jeurgens' house, and when I got there I saw Ashley leaning against the house, looking extremely pale as she did so.

"Ashley?" I asked, getting out of the car.

"Give me a second." Ashley said.

"Ashley?" I asked again.

"Just give me a second to move. It just hurts a lot after I eat." Ashley said.

"Then what are you supposed to do? Not eat? I bet you didn't even eat much for the pain to get worse." I said.

"Ricky, shut up!" Ashley shouted at me, gritting her teeth against the pain.

I wanted to take her to the hospital or at least a clinic. Ashley wasn't one to admit pain and when she could barely control the pain that she was in, well, I knew that it had to be bad and painful.

There wasn't even much I could do, but I was sure that I was just annoying her by repeating her name.

"Can you help me to the car?" Ashley asked.

"Are you sure that you don't want to stay home?" I asked, already knowing what the answer would be.

"No, with what everyone thinks, Amy being gone, and the situation with Adrian, I have to go." Ashley said.

Ashley would ditch school for absolutely no reason, but when she had a solid reason to stay home or even go to the emergency room, she wouldn't. I came to the conclusion that Ashley made absolutely no sense whatsoever.

"Okay." I said.

I put an arm around her waist and supporting a good 80% of her weight, I helped her into the passenger seat of my car. I had no idea how she was going to finish the school day. I went around and opened my door, got in the car, closed the door, and started driving to the church.

Ashley leaned heavily against the window and closed her eyes, though I knew she wasn't asleep.

"Did you get any sleep on the drive back from your grandmother's?" I asked after a comfortable silence.

"A little. Did you get any sleep after your mother showed up?" Ashley asked.

"Some sleep, but I'll still be tired by the afternoon." I said.

Ashley looked up at me and studied me for a moment and then she gave me a small smile and said, "You decided to give her another chance."

"Yeah, I guess it can't be that bad right? I mean, the worst thing she can do now is ignore me or make no effort right?"

"I can't say she won't and I know it'll hurt if she does, but at least then you would have tried everything you could." Ashley said.

"I guess." I said.

Ashley made a face and looked like she was about to throw up because she had a hand over her mouth.

"Are you going to throw up?" I asked, thankful we were at a red light and I had a paper bag in the car.

Ashley just nodded and I gave her the paper bag. As soon as the bag was in her hands she started vomiting into it. I continued driving as she continued getting sick for a good minute or two. We were in the church parking lot and Ashley said, "I think you're right and I need to go see a doctor."

"What finally changed your mind?" I asked, not having once looked at her because I was busy getting John out of his seat.

"I just vomited up blood." Ashley said.

My head snapped up to her face, and sure enough, Ashley had some blood on the tips of three fingers and a little blood coming from the inside of her mouth.

I knew my eyes were as wide as the moon, and Ashley seemed almost shocked. I really didn't want to leave her, but I had to take John into the church.

"Will you be alright out here?" I asked, the worry in my voice evident.

"How the hell would I know?" Ashley snapped at me, spitting the blood in her mouth into the bag.

I ignored the attitude, Ashley was in pain and vomiting blood, Ashley was allowed attitude. I decided that she would be fine for five minutes and picked John up and ran into the daycare centre. I found Nancy, a woman that ran the place, and gave John to her expectant hands and ran out, which Nancy found strange.

I was in and out of the church in under ten minutes, a personal best, and was back in the car with Ashley by the tenth minute.

I called her regular doctor's office and Ashley's regular doctor was out for the day, but they had a replacement. He was close to fully booked, so it would have to be a quick appointment.

"Ash? Your regular doctor is out. Do you want to go to a free clinic or just see the fill-in doctor?" I asked while on the phone.

"I'll just see the doctor they have." Ashley said.

I told the office's secretary and she put it in the computer. I heard the tapping of the keys. I hung up and then drove to the doctor's office. The only positive about this was the shortened school day.

The drive to the doctor's office was a quiet one. I was quiet in my worry and Ashley was quiet because she was feeling really sick.

Once we had entered the doctor's office I immediately regretted going to the doctor's office instead of the clinic. Ashley and I checked in and waited twenty minutes before we were called into the room.

The doctor had skin the colour of caramel, brown eyes, black hair that was greying, and he looked about late forties – early fifties. I didn't like him. The guy didn't seem too friendly. The doctor's name was Dr. Delche and he didn't even introduce himself as that. I had to read it off of his jacket.

Dr. Delche asked questions about Ashley's medical history, family history, and other stuff, but it was clear to the both of us that he wasn't even paying attention to her answers. Not even five minutes later he told us to go to the secretary and make an appointment for next Saturday with Ashley's regular doctor and gave Ashley a prescription for some pain medication for the meantime. It would be a good thing if she wasn't in pain, but what about what was wrong with her? Something had to be causing the pain, but he obviously didn't care about that part either. Your standard douche doctor that doesn't care.

Ashley and I left the doctor's office and we put in the prescription at the local drugstore. I dropped her off at home and told her to stay there and that after school I would bring her medication. Although it wouldn't fix what was wrong with her, it would help with the biggest symptom and that was the point of it.

* * *

_**DISCLAIMER: I own nothing belonging to the TV show, Secret Life of The American Teenager.**_

Aww... the phone call was so cute... yeah, sorry about any grammar mistakes I made, I didn't check through it too well since I wanted to get it out sooner since for a few days I have some stuff to do that will prevent me from posting. So don't shoot me :D And yes, some doctors really are that stupid, believe me, I've met some.


	5. The Bathroom

**Ashley's Point of View**

The sounds of my parents arguing filled my ears. Amazing. Even in the garage I could hear them, and here I had thought that if I moved out here I wouldn't. I got up out of bed and sat back down faster than I had got up. It was the sharp pain, yes, but it was also the dizziness and the weakness that I felt too that made me sit. I groaned and laid back down with two words on my mind, _Why me?_

Okay, fine, sometimes I was too sarcastic, and I joked about the wrong things, okay, I get it, but why did my punishment have to be this? A painful start to a Monday morning, a crappy weekend because I was in my room the entire time laying down in pain that just seemed to never get better. Nothing helped the pain anymore, not sitting or eating certain things, absolutely nothing and it sucked. Only Ricky and Griffin seemed to notice how bad it was getting for me. Ricky and Griffin were talking to each other about me, those two rarely spoke to each other and they did in worry about me. It made me nervous.

My mom and dad still didn't notice anything about the pain that I was in. They were too distracted. Adrian had gone to get the abortion and there weren't any problems except for the fact that after she had gotten rid of the baby, guilt set in. Amy had been calling everyone trying to get someone to talk to her and had called Adrian. Adrian answered crying and accidentally let it slip about the baby and Ben. Amy was just about ready to get on a plane and declare a 'Ben Hunt'. Dad was all for that idea, shame Mom wasn't. They were worried about her.

I sat back up and stumbled the entire way to my dresser. I was seeing doubles of everything and my head felt really foggy. _I'm probably just tired, _I thought as I picked my outfit. That was it, just tired, that's what happens when people don't sleep for days. Right? Then why did I feel so bad? I didn't get as fancy as I normally would with my outfit. Black jeans and a slightly too small black skull & bones T-shirt. I didn't even need to put too much effort into my outfit anyway, I probably looked as crappy as I felt and with a look in a mirror I confirmed that. My eyes had that 'tired' look to them, my hair was messy, but I couldn't find it in me to brush it, and my already pale face had gone paler. Honestly, I was almost corpse white, all I needed was the purplish-blue hue and I could pass for dead.

Once I had thrown on the first matching pair of shoes I found I decided to face the music and go listen to my parents' arguing. I left the garage and walked in the kitchen door where they were. My mom got quiet and looked at me with wide eyes and then looked at Dad, who had a murderous glare on his face. That could mean only one thing, they heard the rumours that involved me being pregnant. They were just that though, rumours, and if they were arguing with each other because they thought that I was pregnant I would really be mad at them.

"Morning." I said, waiting for them to talk about it.

"Ashley," My mom began, "We heard about you being pregnant."

Funny, Amy had told me that when she had told Mom that she was pregnant that Mom could barely believe what she had heard, and here I hadn't even told them that I was pregnant and they thought it.

"Mom, I'm not pregnant." I said, but she doubted it because I winced. Well, not my fault that I was in pain now was it?

"Ashley, you can tell us. We'll get through it just like we got through it with Amy." Mom said.

"Mom, I'm really not pregnant. Just sick." I said.

Mom looked like she doubted that and so did Dad. I didn't like that. Mom and I loved each other, no doubt about it, even if we never agreed on anything or were on the same page, so her not believing me was okay. Dad not believing me though, wasn't. Dad and I were close, or at least I thought that we were. The two of us rarely lied to each other, sometimes might not tell each other everything, but we didn't usually lie to each other, so he should have been able to tell that I was being honest.

I turned to my Dad, "Dad, I'm not pregnant."

"Ashley, you're throwing up and having trouble sleeping, just like Amy did when she was pregnant. What do you want me to say?" Dad said.

_I want you to say that you believe me,_ I thought.

"Who told the two of you this rumour anyway?" I asked. I was surprised. Amy had been able to hide it for a while, even with the rumours, but I hadn't managed to go that long and it wasn't even true for me.

"Amy told us." Mom said.

_Oh. My. God. _Amy must have talked to Madison, Lauren, or even both and they told her the latest news. It made sense now though. Amy had gotten pregnant at fifteen, but she was still the good child compared to me, so if sweet, little, wonderful Amy had told them it, it couldn't possibly be a lie now could it? Perhaps I had freaked out and called Amy until she picked up or even better, rented a blimp with a sign over New York, yeah, that was it.

"And you believe her over me?" I asked weakly, not because I wanted to, but because the dizziness and tiredness was really hurting my head and my throat felt weak too.

"Ashley..." Mom started, Mom didn't need to finish, I understood, they didn't believe me.

"It's fine." I snapped at them and stumbled out the kitchen door, crying, though that only fuelled their suspicions. It was just everything, the pain and my Dad's lack of trust. I thought we had been through that already, but we weren't and I was an idiot.

I would probably have told them that I wasn't feeling well and asked if I could stay home, but now there was no way that I would be in that house with them.

I walked next door, almost falling flat on my face, but thankfully catching my balance. The world twisted at the strangest angle and sharp, horrible pains cut through my stomach, but I made it to Adrian's house.

Before I even got to the door, Adrian opened it and asked, "Ashley, are you okay?"

"No, not even close, but can I get a ride to school?" I asked as I stumbled through the door and Adrian helped me into a seat.

"Are you sure that you even want to go to school? What about a doctor?" Adrian asked.

"I saw one already. He didn't care or pay attention to me, probably missed most of what I said when I went to see him, and I don't want to stay home with my parents." I said.

"Why? What did they do?" Adrian asked. Adrian looked worried, for her to look worried I must really have looked bad.

"Amy told them that I was pregnant." I said.

Adrian nodded. I had talked to Adrian about all the rumours when she asked about them after getting the abortion that was, according to her, the biggest mistake that she had ever made.

"You need to tell them that the rumours aren't true, Ashley."

"I did, but Amy told them. They believe Amy over me."

"Make them believe you." Adrian said, getting me a glass of water.

"How? I told them that I'm not pregnant, but they think that I'm lying." I whispered, sipping some of the water.

"They haven't even noticed that you look like you're dying?" Adrian asked, so in tune with her sensitivity that girl.

"No." I said.

"How can they not see this." Adrian stated more than asked.

"Can I please just get a ride to school?" I asked.

"I wasn't planning on going in today." Adrian said, and it was then that I noticed that she had been crying, too.

"Why?" I asked.

"Grace is mad at me for getting an abortion, she doesn't realize that I'm already mad enough at myself." Adrian muttered.

"I need to go. If my mom sees me over here she'll try to have a mother-daughter talk that will only end when she thinks that I have told her the truth." I said.

"I can just drop you off if you want, but I think that you should see another doctor, maybe even go to the hospital." Adrian said, concerned.

"I don't like hospitals." I said. I didn't. I usually tried to avoid hospitals as often as I could. Something about the constant smell of antiseptic, blood, and vomit.

"Ashley, have you experienced anything that makes you think you need a hospital?" Adrian asked.

Horrible stomach pain, vomiting blood, and she didn't even want to know what happened when I went to the bathroom...

I brushed her concern off with, "I thought that Grace wanted to be the doctor."

Adrian rolled her eyes but again asked if I was sure that I wanted to go to school. It was my only option that didn't involve my mother. If I went to the hospital for them to run tests she would be there and test results take a long time and she would probably say that, "Oh, my daughter's pregnant and in pain." so they'd do tests that involve pregnancy and pain or whatever, but then again that does involve stomach stuff... I didn't want to go anywhere far away or without people in case something did happen so school was safer.

"Okay, I'll drop you off, but you'll probably have to walk a little bit?" Adrian said, but it was more of a question in case I changed my mind, and the thought of walking didn't sound too appealing, but I'd walk more if I took the bus.

"Fine." I said. Adrian took her keys off the counter and helped me into her car.

The two of us didn't talk much – or at all – on the way to school, unless concerned glances back and forth count. Adrian's concern over my messed up health and my concern over her obvious guilt over the abortion.

"Can you pick me up after school?" I asked, carefully getting out of the car.

"Yeah, sure." Adrian said. Adrian looked like she regretted even taking me to school.

I started my pained walk to the school. Adrian dropped me off as close as she could without too many people seeing her, which was still a three minute walk, but it felt more like three hours. The more I walked, the more the world started twisting and turning at strange angles, the more weak I began feeling, and the more pain I felt.

I stumbled in through the doors and I knew that everyone was staring at me. I could feel them staring at me, I didn't even need to look.

Griffin walked up beside me and asked if I wanted to go to the office and say I was sick.

"No, Griffin, I came to school so why would I leave not even a minute after entering the building?"

"Because you're obviously in pain, even obvious enough for everyone to notice." Griffin said.

"Griffin, I'll be fi–" I just screamed, the sharpest, most stabbing pain I had ever felt in my life went through me.

"Ashley?" Griffin asked panicked.

"I'm fine. I'll just go to the bathroom. See you in class later." I said, stumbling to the bathroom, and if anyone hadn't noticed me before they sure did notice now. No one stopped me to talk though, because the bell rang. I was going to be late._ Greaaaat..._

I went into the empty bathroom and soon felt myself about to get sick. I vomited into the sink since I couldn't make it to one of the stalls on time. Again it was blood, but this time it was more than before and it wouldn't stop. I couldn't make it stop, I just kept vomiting blood into the sink uncontrollably.

As I vomited up blood the mirror, stalls, walls, and everything else in the bathroom doubled and tripled and twisted and blurred. I heard the sound of something dripping on the floor, probably blood that had missed the sink. My arms on the sides of the sink felt weak and so did my legs, like they couldn't hold me up anymore. I wasn't sure when I began crying, but I did. I felt like I was ripping apart, and it hurt and I was scared, for once, I was terrified.

My arms and legs gave way and I started falling, and as I fell I slammed my head on the side of the sink and then I hit the floor, hitting my head for the second time on something hard. I felt some blood drip down the side of my face.

_I am going to die here..._

I gave in to the darkness that had been threatening to consume me.

* * *

_**It really would suck to be Ashley right now, wouldn't it?**_

**_Okay, so there is a vote that I'd like you to vote on, and since it's about the next chapter, VOTE QUICKLY. Please._**

**_Who should find Ashley?_**

**_A) Ricky (See his thoughts and feelings about finding the girls he loves like that)_**

**_B) Griffin (See the worry of a best friend and his overprotectiveness and a moment where he calls her out on her feelings for Ricky)_**

**_C) Ethan (See more of his personality, and see if he has some good in him)_**

**DISCLAIMER: I own no characters, places, or anything that belongs to the show. If I did, my name would get mentioned in the credits and I wouldn't even be writing on fanfiction.**


	6. Emergency

**Ricky's Point of View**

I was going to be late. You know those mornings where you just know from the minute you wake up that you slept in and were going to be late so you take a little longer than you should since you were already late anyways? This was one of those.

I got up out of bed and checked the clock. Sure enough, it was eight in the morning and I hadn't eaten anything yet. I got myself out of bed and woke John up, he had gone to sleep late last night so he hadn't woken up on time, either.

I took my time when I made breakfast and got the two of us ready. By the time we had eaten and were ready it was _8:45 A.M._ , twenty minutes before the first bell would ring. I buckled John in and drove him to the church daycare and took him in. Nancy was waiting for me with a strict look on her face when she said, "Ricky, you're late."

I handed her John and rolled my eyes when her back was turned. I obviously knew that I was late so what was the point of telling me that?

I drove to school ignoring my phone that was vibrating every minute of the way there. I thought, _whoever you are, quit it, I'll answer when I park the damn car!_

Once I parked in the school parking lot, I looked at the phone, Adrian. Four missed calls, three new text messages, and one voicemail message. I was confused. Adrian wasn't talking to me just as much as I wasn't talking to her, so why was she going through every possible means of getting a message across?

I checked the voicemail first and Adrian's voice came over the line, "Hey, Ricky, I know we're not talking, but I'm worried about Ashley. She looked really bad this morning when I drove her to school and I want you to check on her, okay, it's for her, not me. If she looks any sicker than when you saw her last take her to another doctor, or even the hospital, not her house, her parents heard the pregnancy rumour from Amy and they don't believe that it's not true. If Ashley goes home she'll hurt herself trying not to listen to them by leaving by herself. Okay, call me and let me know if she's alright."

I hung up the voicemail and looked at the phone, it was about fifteen minutes past nine and the voicemail was left at nine.

As I walked into the school, I text messaged Griffin and asked if Ashley was in class with him. Griffin and Ashley had most of their classes together and I knew that first period was one of them.

Not even a full minute later I got a text back from Griffin, he must have had the phone in his hands waiting for someone to text.

It said, "No, she's not. I saw her before class this morning, said she was going to the bathroom. I'm walking there now to check on her. I'll call her phone and see if she's in there and then if she is, go in if she doesn't answer the phone or my voice."

Griffin had some good texting abilities. I changed my direction to where one of the girls' bathroom was. It made sense that she would use the one closest to her when she walked in, the one on the main floor.

"Griffin!" I shouted from down the hall. Griffin had a phone pressed to his ear, and even I could hear Ashley's particular ringtone in the quiet hall. Ashley wasn't really one for customizing her electronics but she also couldn't handle the peppy ringtones that were pre-downloaded. Ashley then downloaded funeral music and put it as her ringtone, just so she wouldn't ever have to listen to the _Bug's Song_, ever again.

"Ashley?" Griffin asked as he carefully opened the door. A moment later, "ASHLEY!" Griffin hurried in and the door closed behind him. I ran the rest of the way to the bathroom and when I opened the door my eyes were glued to the scene in front of me. I couldn't move or think, I probably didn't even know how to breathe.

Ashley was lying on her back on the bathroom floor, her right hand loosely placed over her stomach, left hand by her side. There was blood on all sides of the sink, and even blood on the floor. The blood on the floor was mostly by her face and hands. Ashley looked so pale, blood was dripping down her face from a spot that her hair was covering, and her lips almost matched her skin in colour. Somehow this looked like a scene from a play or a book where the author or writer was going for the actress to look scary in injury or death, but still beautiful to reflect on her personality or life or something. Ashley looked just like that, scary beautiful, it didn't seem real, but it was and it wasn't fiction, she was really there and she wasn't okay, I needed her, I needed her to be okay, but Ashley wasn't. Yet she needed to be–

"RICKY!" Griffin shouted, looking at me like something was wrong with me. I hadn't even noticed him and in reality, he was a wake up call. I ran from my spot by the door to her side in an instant. Griffin and I were both on our hands and knees next to her trying to figure out what was wrong with her.

"Ashley?" I asked. I checked to see if she was breathing and then I checked her pulse. Ashley's pulse was so rapid that I couldn't keep a clear count.

"Griffin, run to the office and say that there's blood in the bathroom that Ashley vomited up and she's unconscious, and that you think she has internal bleeding." I snapped at him, "GO!"

Griffin ran out the door as fast as he probably could. When he got to the office the blood on his hands and shirt would help the secretaries believe him about Ashley.

I gently moved her hair from her face and began stroking it, which was just about all that I could do at the moment.

Not long later, Griffin came back with the principal right behind him. The principal said something into his walkie talkie to confirm that Ashley Juergens did need an ambulance and to call one, and that her parents should be notified immediately.

The principal awkwardly excused himself after that saying that he would wait for the ambulance and then lead them to where we were.

After the principal left I knew that Griffin was staring at me and Ashley. I had a feeling that I would be having a talk about Ashley with Griffin later and probably one with George, too. It wasn't the time now though, so I just continued using one hand to stroke Ashley's hair and the other I kept on the pulse point on her wrist as I thought over and over again, _As long as she has a pulse, she's alive._

Griffin and I waited and while we waited I thought about all the things that we could have – should have – done differently. I should have insisted that even though she hated hospitals that she go. I knew that Ashley hated hospitals since back when Amy had John. Ashley had been sitting outside, drinking the same cup of coffee for an hour so she wouldn't be in the hospital, even though she didn't even like coffee very much. I should have made that doctor pay attention or taken her to see a different one after that.

A little over ten minutes later we heard the principal's voice outside the door, "Ashley Juergens is in there."

The door opened and three people who I assumed were paramedics came in, but I couldn't be sure if that was what they were or not, I didn't know a lot about ambulances except for the fact that there was usually a paramedic. They had to have other kinds of doctors right? Why hadn't I ever thought of this before?

The three began looking over Ashley, poking and prodding, checking her pulse rate, whatever they did in this type of situation.

"Are you friends of hers or did you just find her like this?" One of them, a woman about thirty-something asked, she had brown eyes and bright red hair.

Of course we found her like this. We're guys, why the hell would we go into a girls bathroom if we didn't care about the one girl in it?

"Friends." Griffin answered.

"How long has she been unconscious?" The same woman asked.

"We found her a little past 9:15, but she probably has been unconscious before that since the first bell rang at 9:05 and she didn't make it to class." Griffin said.

"Has she been experiencing any sickness or pains lately?"

_What hasn't she been experiencing lately?_

"Ashley has had bad stomach pains, so bad that she can't sleep most nights for the past week, and last week on Friday she vomited up some blood, but it was nothing like this."

"Any chance that she may be pregnant?" The woman asked.

"None." Griffin and I said at the same time.

The woman lifted Ashley's shirt up a little bit and touched her stomach gently and examined it, the woman didn't like what she found and not long after they said that Ashley was likely bleeding internally from an underlying condition. That was all they could tell us, either because that was all that they knew or because legally they couldn't reveal too much information.

The paramedics put Ashley on the stretcher and wheeled her out of the bathroom. Griffin and I followed, by unspoken agreement it was decided that I would be driving behind the ambulance and Griffin would be riding shotgun.

Some classrooms had their doors open and when people noticed that someone was being wheeled out on a stretcher everyone crowded by their classroom door and stared. When they realized it was Ashley, the phones came out and people started texting, and the people that didn't have a cellphone talked with the other ones that didn't.

"Is she having a miscarriage?"

"I hope not, her sister's baby is so cute, hers would be too."

"Really? You think she would keep it?"

I had the impulse to yell at them, but I kept it in.

"It's not like she doesn't deserve it though, she's a bitch." Before I could hit the guy that said that comment, someone else beat me to it. Some guy that Ashley had complained about once – Ethan – I think, had punched him so that the guy that said the comment hit the wall first and then fell on the floor where Ethan then kicked him twice in the nose, probably breaking it, before a teacher pulled Ethan away from the guy. "You're only saying that because she rejected you." Ethan hissed at him.

I saw Madison in the doorway of her classroom, she was staring while her thumbs texted, having learned where the letters were without needing to look at them. Everyone would know that something was wrong with Ashley before the hour was done.

Everyone had returned to their seats once we had almost left the building, but no studying or learning was going to take place today.

As the paramedics hooked Ashley up to the various machines in the ambulance, Griffin and I got in my car.

We waited until the ambulance had left and then followed at a safe distance, already knowing which hospital she was going to be taken to anyway.

* * *

When we entered the hospital doors and went to the waiting room, Griffin and I were greeted by the sight of a pacing, panicking, terrified George and Anne who wasn't doing much better as she tried to calm Robbie down, who sensed the tense atmosphere and was crying accordingly.

"Breathe, Anne, she'll be fine, she'll be fine, just because you two had a fight this morning doesn't mean it'll be the last thing she hears. You were right, maybe she miscarried and will be fine, minus losing a baby, that is." Anne said as she paced, bouncing Robbie trying to get him to calm down.

George saw us and completely ignored me, instead going for Griffin, "Griffin, what happened? Who found her? What do you know?"

"You know what happened, Ricky and I found her, all I know is that Ashley has internal bleeding, George." Griffin said.

"Okay, okay, it's good, internal bleeding is fixable." Anne said. Finally giving up on calming Robbie down because there was nothing that she could do.

I sat down and tried to think about how many days Ashley had been in pain for, bleeding slowly for, and there wasn't a clear answer, but the obvious one was: Too many. It wasn't only Ashley's fault for not getting enough medical help, it was also her parents' fault for it. Everyone else noticed that something was really wrong with her so why didn't they notice? I finally understood that although they loved Ashley a lot, Ashley was right, they did ignore her a lot and often they knew they were doing it or even chose to do it. Anne and George were great parents, but they didn't treat Amy and Ashley equal, it was always one over the other, and the only reason Robbie wasn't included was because he was too young.

Half an hour passed with no update, but Adrian had showed up with Ruben and her mom, and so did Ben with his dad.

Ruben and Ben's dad were trying to calm George down because by this point he was sweating and going to the nurses' station and asking for an update every minute. Anne had given Robbie to Adrian's mother, despite their problems.

"When they have an update they'll let us know." Ben's dad said.

Adrian sat on the chair with her feet on it and knees pulled up to her chin and she said, "I drove her to school. Ashley looked like that and I drove her to school."

A doctor with greying hair, a old, tired looking brown eyes walked up and said, "Relatives of Ashley Juergens?"

Ashley's dad almost ran into the man trying to get the update first, "Yes? What's wrong?"

"Is she having a miscarriage?" Anne asked, walking to him.

The doctor showed obvious signs of confusion as he said, "Mrs. Juergens, your daughter's not pregnant."

It was Anne's turn to look confused, but George jumped in the air and shouted, "YES!"

"Did she say she was?" The doctor asked.

"No, it was just a rumour going around school." Adrian said from her unchanging spot.

"Would you like to talk about this in private?" The doctor asked.

"No, whatever you have to say you can tell everyone else, too." Anne said.

"Ashley first came in with severe abdominal bleeding and we gave her a blood transfusion when she came in, however her heart did stop briefly due to lack of blood and we had to insert another line. We've ran tests on Ashley for the past half hour and based on the endoscopy, anaemic positive test results, and internal bleeding, we're quite sure that she has an ulcer that perforated the wall of her duodenum, and another ulcer in her stomach that is bleeding heavily or possibly ruptured. Ashley does have a minor concussion from when she hit her head, but it should heal on its own. We will, however, need your consent to remove both ulcers and repair the damage through surgery." The doctor said.

Anne's mouth dropped open and George went back to his pacing back and forth and George asked, "How could this get so bad?"

"Ashley may have never felt any symptoms of having ulcers until she had massive complications. It's been known to happen in children and older people, and although she's neither it is entirely possible. It's luck, either bad or good depending how you look at it."

"She hasn't been in pain." Anne muttered.

"She has, you just didn't notice." I said.

"She has?" Anne asked.

"Yeah." Adrian, Ben, Griffin, and I all said.

"How did she get it?" Anne asked the doctor.

"Sometimes the ulcer can be caused by a certain bacteria, which we've tested Ashley for and she doesn't have it, other causes can be irregular levels of acid in the stomach, which Ashley has and that's likely the cause." The doctor said. "Until we know for sure that the higher levels of acid in her stomach is some form of overproduction we won't do any preventative surgeries, but she will need to have a partial gastrectomy and a gastroduodenostomy, meaning that she'll need to have a portion of her stomach removed and a new passage between the duodenum and the stomach will be created."

Anne and George looked terrified but they accepted the forms given to them and looked them over for a few minutes before signing them. After that, everything moved quickly. Ashley was moved to the surgical floor and we couldn't even see her before she was. We weren't even told how long it would take, but the doctor said at least over four hours, depending on the damage the stomach ulcer did to Ashley's stomach. If too much damage was done, a full gastrectomy instead of a partial one would have to be done or if there wasn't enough of the upper duodenum left they would do a different procedure that had different more unpleasant side effects.

"This is a really bad day." Adrian said.

"How is Ashley?" Grace asked, Tom, her mother, and her mother's new husband right behind them.

"Going for surgery." George said.

"That's terrible! What's wrong?" Grace asked.

"Ashley has two ulcers and they caused damage to her stomach and something called a duodenum and there can be some complications because one has already perforated and the other is bleeding badly." George said.

"Oh, the duodenum is a part of the small intestine." Grace said.

"Well, technically, it's the first part." Grace's stepfather said.

"Jeff, I didn't need the help." Grace said.

Okay, so their problems had not resolved in the slightest.

"Did anyone call Amy and tell her that her sister is having life-saving surgery?" Ben asked.

"No, we aren't going to tell her until we know that Ashley will be okay." Anne said.

"Ashley will be fine. They've diagnosed her and taken her in for surgery and the doctors will repair the damage." Adrian said.

"I don't know, people have died from ulcers before and she has two." Grace said, thinking out loud, only to be met with everyone staring at her in a _how-could-you-say-that_ way.

"Grace, honey, it's really not the time for sharing." Grace's mom said to her.

The four of them took seats in the waiting room. It would only be a matter of time before everyone else came, too.

Adrian's mother gave Robbie to Anne who then gave Robbie to Griffin. Griffin was good with kids, Ashley mentioned that once, and so was Grant.

Ten minutes passed and then Lauren and Madison ran into the waiting room, Jack walking behind them looking like he didn't want to be, and Madison was shouting, "Are we too late! What happened! What's wrong! Is she losing the baby! Why is no one answering me?"

"Because you're shouting and completely wrong." I said.

"So she isn't losing the baby?" Lauren asked.

"There isn't a baby to speak of." Griffin said.

"So she already lost it? Poor Ashley." Madison said, pouting.

"There is no baby now and there never was. Ashley has never been pregnant in her life. Ashley's only problem is two ulcers that have now decided that they want to put her life on the line so will the two of you shut up already and go gossip in a corner." Adrian snapped at them.

Lauren put a hand on her hip and walked to a seat with Madison following behind her. Ashley didn't like those two, they knew it and we all knew it, they were only here to get the latest information. When Ashley finds out that Madison and Lauren showed up at the hospital she will yell at everyone in a ten mile radius to get them out, and maybe even burst a stitch. I did not want to be the one to tell her. I could always just send Jack in, he was very non-violent so he could use a little toughening up.

* * *

Five or six hours later and not a single update, we were all going more than a little insane. I saw the guy that Ethan had punched and kicked in the hospital, he did in fact have a broken nose and a loose tooth.

Not telling Amy hadn't worked because the person that Madison had texted earlier was Amy and Madison told her through text that Ashley was having a miscarriage. Amy read the text two hours after that and called and texted Madison and Lauren for the latest information. Lauren and Madison didn't know much so everything they said only freaked Amy out more, so Anne eventually had to call and explain everything that was wrong with Ashley and then calm Amy down when she wanted to get on a plane and fly back.

Adrian had lost her patience with Madison an hour ago and took Madison's phone and threw it into the garbage, destroying it. Adrian told Madison that if she actually cared she wouldn't be on a phone and texting everyone with an available number. I had to agree with her on that because Madison acted like life was one big game to play and include everyone in. It wasn't intended to be that way.

"Why haven't they given us an update yet?" George asked.

"I'm sure that they will soon, George." Donovan said.

Donovan had showed up two hours ago after he closed the shop for the day. Emergencies came first and he was worried about Ashley, he had seen her grow up for years.

The same doctor that we had spoken to before came out a little while later. Everyone looked at him and his eyes went a little wide at the larger crowd than earlier. Hospitals should impose some law about having too many people in the waiting room.

"Is she okay?" I asked.

"Both of Ashley's ulcers were removed. The new passage has been created successfully, but we did end up taking out more of her stomach than we had initially planned to. It wasn't a full gastrectomy, but it was still a substantial part of her stomach so we'll have to wait and see what side effects she will have when she wakes up." The doctor said.

All of us were relieved, even Robbie, who was asleep in Anne's arms.

_Ashley is fine. Ashley will have some unpleasant side effects, but she is fine._

"Can we see her?" Anne asked.

"Ashley isn't awake yet and she still has tubes, needles, and machines hooked up to her, but if you want to see her, you can, two people at a time only. Ashley will be in room 403 until the anaesthetic wears off and then she will be moved to a different room for the next seven days, maybe a little longer depending on how she recovers." The doctor said and then left.

Madison took Lauren's phone and began texting. Adrian glared at Madison as if just the power of her staring could kill Madison.

Anne and George went in first and stayed for ten minutes before coming back out.

"Ashley looks horrible." Anne said.

George just sat down, no smile or happiness, that was a sign that Ashley did look bad.

"It's the ICU, what do you expe–" Grace stopped talking, seeing the look we were all giving her.

"Griffin, you can go see her." George said.

"Ricky, come with me." Griffin said flatly and I got up and followed him into Ashley's room.

Ashley was lying on the hospital bed, still very pale, but a little more coloured than earlier in the bathroom. Ashley's face looked sweaty and her eyelids had a pale bluish look. There was a tube in her nose and a mask that provided oxygen covering her nose and mouth. There were two needles in her left arm, both giving her some type of clear fluid or medicine. Another needle was in her right arm, giving her blood. There was also a machine that monitored Ashley's heart rate, and something else that I didn't know. Another machine was connected to her, but I wasn't sure what it did.

Griffin stood next to her and while looking at her said, "Ashley cares about you too and not in a friendship way or a twisted brother-in-law way either."

I didn't smile because something else was coming. Griffin had a protective edge to him, especially when it came to Ashley. I was probably one of the last few people on the entire planet that would be good for her, and Griffin had to know that.

"You better not treat her like you treat every other girl. Expendable." Griffin said.

"I wouldn't." I snapped at him.

"Why should I believe that?" Griffin asked.

"Because–" I started, but couldn't finish. Griffin had every right not to believe me, because there wasn't a reason for him to believe me. I hadn't really been in love before Ashley, the closest ever being Adrian and that didn't turn out well. With Adrian and me it had been non-stop cheating and mind games.

"Exactly, so you better prove it."

I nodded. Griffin was giving me a chance, a small chance to see if Ashley and I could be anything by giving us his approval, which would be good. Griffin was Ashley's only friend and if he wasn't fighting me at every turn Ashley and I could be something, and if it didn't work out, it wouldn't end badly.

Griffin started walking out the door, but before he left he said, "And I'm not great at figuring out people that I don't know well, so if I'm wrong about how you feel and you do treat her like every other girl, be prepared. At other schools before this one I was bullied for being gay, sometimes words, but mostly guys punching, kicking, or purposely bumping into me to teach me to be a 'man', I can hit and be hit just as well as you can, Ricky."

With that, Griffin left. I could see why Ashley's dad liked Griffin so much. Griffin may be overprotective of Ashley, but it kept her safe. I wanted that for her, safety. If I hadn't been already going to check on Ashley when she was in the bathroom, Griffin would have, and it felt nice to know that Ashley had someone besides me looking out for her, even if she didn't like it when people did that.

I took the seat by Ashley's bed. If I was going to prove it, I would be here for her as long as I could. I didn't have to pick John up until seven anyway. I would take care of John and Ashley, and that would be all I would do until Ashley was better and could take care of herself.

* * *

Alright, I did the best I could when it came to Ashley's medical problems alright? If you see any obvious things I got wrong just ignore them. And yes, usually there are symptoms of ulcers but rarely there are no symptoms until serious problems happen. It's happened with children and old people, like the doctor said, so I'm making Ashley that rarity despite her age. Aww... Griffin's protective. I love him, all the good guys are either taken or gay.

_**Disclaimer: **_

_**Me: Am I mentioned in the credits of the show, Secret Life of The American Teenager?**_

**_Everyone reading this: NO!_**

**_Me: See, so I don't own the show, script, or any places you see on the show! I own a tiny laptop, my own TV, books, and a journal, NO SECRET LIFE! Not even the series on DVD..._**


	7. Hospital Kisses

**Ashley's Point of View**

Beeping. That was all that I was hearing and it was annoying beyond belief.

_Can someone please stop that beeping? PLEASE?_

I wanted to scream for someone to turn it off so that I could go back to sleep, but my mouth felt dry like paper and all I could get out was a demented breathy sound. I swallowed a few times and it didn't help much, but I managed a weak whisper. I opened my eyes and blinked a few times. Sunlight. I squinted against it. One of the positive things about living in a garage was no big windows so the light was a change for me.

I looked around and noticed two things. One, that I was in a hospital room with needles and tubes in me and two, that Ricky was sleeping in a chair that was against the wall on my right. I smiled a little and used what little energy I had and took one of the pillows from behind my head and threw it at Ricky. I gasped when I released the pillow because there was a sharp pain in my stomach when I stretched. The pillow did manage to hit Ricky, though, right in the face causing him to hit the back of his head on the wall behind him. Ricky fell out of his chair and looked around angrily before realizing that I was awake.

"Ashley." Ricky said, making my name come out very breathy. Ricky lifted the pillow off the floor and put it behind the other pillow I had behind my head, then moved the chair he had been sleeping in next to me and sat on it.

"H–ey," I said, my voice cracking.

"Hey, you know that most people ask if they're alive after they have a near death experience, but you use a pillow as a weapon instead." Ricky said, giving me only a few sips of water because that was all that I was allowed, according to what my doctor told Ricky.

I rolled my eyes at him and said, "I think that's only in the movies and even if it isn't, I know that I'm not dead."

"And how would you know that?" Ricky asked, smiling.

"I hate hospitals, but they're not number one on my list of hate or like so a hospital is neither heaven or hell for me. You're here, so unless you died between me vomiting up blood in a bathroom and now, you wouldn't be." I explained. I coughed a little and winced at the pain.

Ricky's smile faltered for a second and concern showed, but the smile return when I lightly touched his hand and told him that I was fine. Ricky loosely held my hand after that. I was aware of it, but I wasn't so sure that he was. It seemed almost natural for him to do that, but I wasn't complaining and I sure wasn't going to mention it to him in case he would move it.

"And if there isn't a heaven or hell when we die?" Ricky asked.

"Then when Grace dies she is going to be very angry." I said.

"Then you just know that she'll hunt down a clipboard and make creating heaven her project while she's in the afterlife." Ricky said.

"Think that they'll toss her out?"

"Isn't that where the theory of reincarnation comes from?"

"From the possibility of Grace having a past life?" I asked, scrunching up my face in overdramatic thought.

Before Ricky could answer, a nurse came in. The nurse had grey eyes and blonde hair. I wanted to ask if she really was a nurse and if she was how long she had been one because she looked really young and one near death experience was enough for the week.

"Excuse me, but I have to change her dressings now, so if you can please wait outside." The nurse said.

"Okay." Ricky said. Ricky removed his hand from mine and he lightly kissed my forehead. It felt nice, really nice.

"Thank you, I'll be sure to tell you when you can come back in." The nurse said.

Ricky left and I breathed out a little heavier when Ricky was gone. I didn't love him, I couldn't. Whatever it was between us wasn't love. The both of us just had small crushes.I couldn't love the father of Amy's baby, but I think that I did love him and that just made it all the worse.

"Is that your boyfriend?" The nurse asked as she checked something off of my chart.

"Not really." I said.

"But he wants you to be his girlfriend?" The nurse asked, prepping me so that she could change my dressings.

"I don't know." I said. _LIAR._

The nurse looked at me sceptically and said, "Really?"

"Well, maybe, but it's complicated." I said, wincing a little when she took off my old dressings.

"It always is." The nurse said.

"How complicated does that guy, Ricky, being the father of my older sister's baby via one night stand sound?"

The nurse looked at me for a moment and then said, "I'm generally not supposed to talk about personal things with patients, but I will right now. Technically, I have two dads. My mother's husband raised me because he believed that he was my biological father and it was his responsibility to take care of me. Fourteen years later, as my grandmother on my dad's side was dying, I found out that my biological father was really my grandfather and that the person who had been my dad for fourteen years was actually my half-brother." The lady used the tone I had used before, "How complicated does that sound?"

I ignored her tone and asked, "So, what happened?"

"Well, my mother denied it at first, but after my dad or half-brother, whatever you want to call him, got three DNA tests all saying that I was in fact his half-sister, she told the truth." The nurse said.

"What happened to your parents' relationship?" I asked.

"My non-biological father divorced my mom and when he did, he gave me the option of living with him. Neither my dad or myself have spoken to our biological father. My dad is the one who raised me and he has been my dad since the day that I was born and the day that genetics said I wasn't his. My half-brother by blood is my dad by bond and it's complicated. People talk about my mother, about him, and about me. People are always going to talk about things that they think they wouldn't do. I learned that in situations where people say that by dating a certain person or having a certain person in your family you're complicating things for yourself, that's not true, those people that judge you for your family or your feelings are the ones that complicate everything. Not the people that are in that family or feel those feelings."

The nurse let me think about that while she finished putting on the new dressings. After the nurse finished she said, "You can't eat anything for another two days, at least, but you can have the tube that's in your nose removed later today."

I nodded and the nurse left. Okay, so some people had more complicated lives than I did. I had to admit that.

The door opened and Ricky came in, taking the seat next to me.

"Griffin wants to see you," Ricky said. "Are you up for visitors?"

"You're here aren't you?" I said sarcastically. Then I really thought about it. Ricky really was there, so how long had I been asleep? I had definitely needed a surgery and that took time, plus recovery from the anaesthetic, plus whatever complications might have happened. "How long have I been in the hospital?"

"Two days. It's Wednesday today. You would've woken up yesterday, but for whatever reason the anaesthetic kept you sleeping longer than necessary, though it's probably better for you to rest anyway so it wasn't too big a deal."

"What was wrong with me?" I asked.

"You had two ulcers. One of them perforated the wall of your duodenum and the other one was bleeding badly, they had to take out a portion of your stomach, more than they had intended to, even. They also had to create a passage between your stomach and duodenum because the previous one had been damaged."

"Well that's just great." I said sarcastically. "I don't follow the normal patterns do I? Instead of a baby I had two ulcers that almost killed me."

"I doubt that it's more normal to be a teenage mother than a teenager with ulcers." Ricky said.

"Around here it is." I said.

"Once again, I doubt that." Ricky said.

"I bet my parents were happy that ulcers were all I had." I said.

"Your mom was confused when the doctor told her–"

"Because, of course, she thinks I'm a slut." I interrupted.

"And your dad looked like he was going to pull out a cake and throw a party for a second."

"I expected that reaction from him. He would be the happiest man alive if I decided to become a nun." I said.

"I think he'd want you to have children once you were above the age of thirty." Ricky said.

"Want to bet on that?" I asked.

"You would bet money on something that won't be decided for another 15 years?"

"I never said that we'd be betting money."

We were interrupted again, this time by Griffin who knocked on the door and then stood in the doorway looking at us. Griffin had an unreadable expression on his face and that unsettled me because usually I could read Griffin very well.

"Hey, Griffin." I said.

"Ashley, Ricky." Griffin tilted his head in the direction of the door while looking at Ricky. Nice way to get your point across, Griffin. Ricky got the message and left, but Griffin looked at him without any annoyance or anger, so something had to have happened between me blacking out and me being in surgery for the two of them to form an alliance without any harshness.

"Did one of you get a lobotomy or something?" I asked.

"No, we just came to an understanding." Griffin said, sitting in the chair that Ricky had been sitting in.

"And this incredible, amazing, extremely surprising understanding was reached... how?" I asked melodramatically.

"By me getting the point across that if he hurts you I'll hurt him." Griffin said.

"Oh." I said, a little high pitched, "And you're another person that thinks he loves me, aren't you?"

"I think he does, but I do know that you love him." Griffin said.

"How do you know that I love him if even I don't know if I love him or not?" I asked.

"Because I'm your gay best friend, ergo I know you better than even you know you."

"Of course." I said.

"He looked like he was about to die when he found you in the bathroom, you know." Griffin said, changing the topic.

"The two of you found me in the bathroom... what were the two of you doing in the girls bathroom?" I asked.

"We were looking for you. I was worried so I went to check on you and Ricky was worried too, and he texted me and I said you weren't in class and where I was going to look for you first and then Ricky went there because he was worried, just as much, if not more than I was."

"Did he really look like that?" I asked, hating how my voice sounded hopeful.

Griffin noticed the hopeful tone of my voice and said, "Yes, he did, but I'm not sure if him looking like that as you were internally bleeding to death is something to be cheery about."

I rolled my eyes at Griffin and then he talked to me about his brothers and their relationships. Griffin's eldest brother wanted to get married to his boyfriend, but the courts and the churches were either against it or in the process of changing rules for same gender couples, so they were having problems. If they wanted to get married, they should be allowed, but not everyone thought like that.

Griffin continued talking until he noticed that my eyes were closing and then fluttering back open because I was tired. It had nothing to do with what he was saying, I was just that tired, which was odd considering I had slept two days already. I needed sleep, though, and Griffin told me to rest and that we'd talk later. I was asleep before he even shut the door.

I dreamt about Ricky.

* * *

I opened my eyes and saw Ricky in the same chair he had been in when I last woke up, except this time he was next to me and wide awake, reading a book. I also noticed that the tube that was in my nose before had been taken out.

"Don't you have work or something?" I asked.

"Switched with Ben. He's been trying to find distractions from Amy and Adrian so he is happy to do it." Ricky said, looking up from the book.

"Was he here?" I asked.

"Yeah, Ben, Adrian, Grace, their parents..."

"Who else?" I asked, noticing a little evasiveness in his tone.

"Madison and Lauren..." Ricky said.

I sat up so fast at the mention of them possibly being there in the hospital that a sharp, horrible pain hit my stomach. Ricky tried getting me to sit back down but I refused.

_ARE YOU KIDDING ME? HE LET THEM BE HERE WHILE I WAS IN SURGERY?_

"Are they still here?" I asked, attempting calmness, but not succeeding too well.

"No, Adrian broke Madison's phone beyond repair and Lauren's phone kept ringing loudly after that and since you're not supposed to have cellphones in hospitals, they had to turn it off. After that they gave up and went home because it got too boring for them." Ricky said, still looking concerned, which brought up something that Griffin had said earlier.

"You really were that scared when you found me." I said.

Ricky's eyes met mine and for a second I lost my breath. I could vaguely hear the heart monitor spike up a little.

Ricky and I leaned in, mostly Ricky because I couldn't lean too well, and kissed. It wasn't fireworks, bright lights, or pretty rainbows. It was everything I wanted and needed.

Ricky and I pulled away and I rested my forehead against his.

_Holy hell. Amy is going to kill me. I'm in love with Ricky Underwood._

_

* * *

_

I have a question about the characters' birthdays and I'm hoping someone can help or at least tell me if this makes sense.

Amy's supposed to turn 17 or something close to the end of June or early July, so I won't change that. Ashley is a year and a little bit younger, being born sometime in either September (Labor Day) or November (Thanksgiving) so either of those dates she will turn 16 because Amy and her are born in different years, but only a year apart. Ricky had to be 16 before the start of the first season as he was able to drive, and then since Amy is about a year younger than him, he'll turn 18 late July, early August, or has he already turned 18 because he's going into his Senior year in high school? Help me. And according to what I researched, Ricky shouldn't have ever been driving Grace or anyone else around in his car because he hadn't had a license for 12 months... but since it's a TV show nobody cares :D

**DISCLAIMER: I own nothing recognized to be a part of The Secret Life of The American Teenager. No characters at all, I did read Ashley's Diary that got published, but that DOES NOT COUNT! :P**


	8. Secret Love Interests

I'm back! The grip of writer's block has loosened and after my last exam on the 27th, I will be updating all my stories regularly. I was even planning to make another story for the Secret Life of the American Teenager, but now I'm definitely reconsidering with the way the show is now. If you dislike ranting, skip past this and the disclaimer for the actual chapter. Okay, fair warning, here is my ranting. ARE YOU KIDDING ME? How does someone go from creating a show like 7th Heaven to this? It seems as if the writers are just destroying every female character except Amy just so nobody has a choice but to ship Amy/Ricky. Adrian: Knocked her up. Ashley: Turned her crazy. Grace: Gateway sex. Madison: Jack and the spoilers claim some creepy older dude. Lauren: ANNOYING, BUT CONSISTENT. It's horrible! And they've made the show so that Amy's all mature over the course of a few episodes. Like what the hell is going on? If they had to mess everyone up, make it happen slowly throughout a season so it's believable. Everyone just took a nose dive or a head rise. It's okay to do that in fanfiction, because in fanfiction people have a set pairing, a set plot, and tend to make up for it with other ideas and other characters. But in original fiction, it's bad. It takes away choice. Before Ashley went crazy, I could've said I was doing a fanfic Ashley/Ricky and gotten a, 'Oh, that's cool. I'm more of a Ramy fan, though,' now I'd get, 'WHAT? WHY? ASHLEY'S SUCH A BRAT. AMY'S MUCH BETTER NOW.' And really, for the duration of two whole episodes, she has been, from what I've seen. Because I didn't watch all of the finale, it was too horrible. I've read spoilers for the rest of the episodes to see if I want to watch it and I'm not impressed. I now know why people are calling the show Secret Life of the American Idiot. I don't know what to say other than it's giving teenagers and even kids impressions that it really shouldn't be about sex, teen pregnancy, teen marriage, and the list goes on. I could rant more, but I'll give way to the chapter for now.

****

**DISCLAIMER: I do not own Secret Life of the American Teenager, and I wouldn't want to at the moment, too much to resurrect.**

* * *

**Ashley's Point of View**

"Okay, Ashley, easy," Janessa said, easing me into the hospital bed. Janessa was the nurse from a few days ago that told me about her family. I learned her name after asking one of the gossipy volunteers. I figured if she knew about Ricky, and I knew about her dads, we should be on a first name basis.

I mumbled 'ow' a few times. My stomach was still really sore from the surgery and I had been told that it would stay that way for about a month until everything healed, inside and out.

"Is there likely to be a day when I can walk to the bathroom by myself?"

"In about three days, after you're discharged," Janessa said, and then grinned, "when you're home by yourself where it's either do or get a diaper."

I glared at her and was about to say something back to her; Ben came in, though, so I couldn't. Ben came complete with yellow and peach coloured roses, a card, and a teddy bear.

I told Janessa, "We'll talk later," and we would if I had a say in it.

"Hey, Benjamin," I said, giving him a small grin. I had a feeling what this conversation would be about and if I was right, this wasn't going to be a fun visit. No reason to start it off badly, though.

"Hey, Ashley. How are you feeling?" Ben asked, sitting down next to me as Janessa slipped out of the room. Ben placed the gifts on the night table beside me.

"I'm in some pain, but that's normal," I said. "What about you?"

"I need some advice," Ben said.

"Hair advice? Aww… Benjamin, I think we need to consult _What Not to Wear_ for that one," I said, trying to mess with him a little bit.

"It's not–"

"So it's shoes? Nails? Boy advice?" I asked, laughing even though it hurt.

"Are you done?" Ben asked, smiling a little. I think he was happy I was laughing even if it was at his expense.

I grinned and said, "Yeah, yeah, go ahead."

"It's about Adrian," Ben said.

"I figured," I said, motioning with a hand for him to continue.

"It's just," Ben said, struggling for words, "I'm relieved about the abortion? I'm not glad that she got rid of the baby but, I don't know."

"You feel sad that she got rid of the baby, that your kid really doesn't exist anymore. At the same time, though, you're happy things don't have to change, that you don't have to accept being a father at sixteen because there's no one to be a father to," I said, and then continued. "That slight happiness makes you feel guilty because it's still a human life, the life of your kid. You see how Adrian is struggling with the impact of her decision and think that what you're feeling is horrible, and you want to ask Adrian if there is any part of her that feels what you feel, just so you can know you're not the only one."

"Yeah, is it cruel that there's even a part of me that feels relieved?" Ben asked.

"I don't think it is," I said. "You've seen Amy with John and all the stress she has been under and you've seen Ricky and the stress that being a father has put on him and then you can't help but think you've dodged something, as harsh as that sounds. Children can be great, but they can also be hard and complicated. It's okay to feel however you're feeling, Ben."

"Can I talk to Adrian about it? You know… without seeming cruel?"

"It depends how you word it. Try to explain it to her as best you can. You need to talk about this with her, not me. She's the one who got pregnant and made the decision to get rid of it, you're the one that got her pregnant and let her make the decision. Talk to her about what you're feeling, it's personal and should only be between the two of you."

"But what if she hates me?" Ben asked. "She can barely look at me now as it is."

"You're barely able to look at her, too. Has it ever occurred to you that maybe she feels like you hate her?" I asked.

"Why would I hate her?" Ben asked incredulously.

"Why should she hate you?" I countered.

"Because I got her pregnant," Ben said.

"I've told this to Amy, now I'll tell it to you. It takes two to make a stupid sexual decision. You got her pregnant but she let herself get pregnant. She got in that car, she didn't say no, and from what I saw that night–"

"YOU _SAW_ US!"

"Yes–"

"OH. MY. GOD. Why didn't you say something?" Benjamin asked.

"I try not to meddle in people's business," I said, "and what was I supposed to do? Knock on the car window mid-boink?"

Benjamin repeated himself, "OH. MY. GOD."

"Talk to her, Benjamin."

"I can't believe you saw us… you know…"

"Doing the deed? Doing 'it'? Screwing? Having sex? Boinking?"

"Oh, GOD, please never say the word 'boink' again."

"Really, people around here can't go five minutes without saying 'sex' and you have an issue with the word 'boink'?"

"You have an issue with the word 'flirt'," Ben countered.

"Fine, fine, but if it helps, I didn't see much," I said. "Just some skin and a couple expressions before I bolted to safe territory."

"OH. GOD. Leaving now!" Ben said, getting up and backing up towards the door.

"There really isn't much room in that car, is there?"

The door slammed shut. I started laughing, not caring that it hurt. Benjamin was definitely going to talk to her now, though. If only to say I caught a glimpse, which I did. There were some things in the world I'd like to see and some I wouldn't. Benjamin and Adrian was somewhere on the try-to-burn-from-memory scale.

I involuntarily yawned. I was so tired lately. I had to heal and sleep was the best way to do that, and my body knew it.

I fluffed the flat as a board pillow and went to sleep.

* * *

The first thing I noticed when I woke up was a large bouquet of roses, not red, but gray, on my bedside table. They were right next to Ben's gifts, though placed strategically in my line of few quite well. The roses had been dyed gray and to be honest, looked great. The roses were a dark gray in the center and went lighter gray going outwards. I counted them, twenty-four gray roses. There was a card placed right in the middle, taped to one of the roses.

_**Ashley,**_

_**How are you feeling? I heard about the ulcers.**_

_**It must have hurt. I also heard about Ricky coming**_

_**to your aid. Nice of him, wasn't it? **_

_**- Camelia**_

"This bitch is getting seriously annoying," I said under my breath.

"What bitch?" Ricky asked, coming into the room. Before he sat down, he gave me a light kiss.

"Camelia. She just left me these," I said, point to the roses. "I thought you were handling it."

"I'm trying," Ricky said. "But whenever I talk to her she just makes a creepy love face at me and acts like each time we have a conversation I'm proposing marriage or something."

I frowned. I didn't like Camelia's obsession with Ricky or her growing obsession with me.

"If she does anything else, we call the cops, right?" I asked.

"Okay, deal," Ricky said. "We can't take anymore chances."

"So now that we've talked about Camelia, what about us?" I asked, biting the side of my lip and looking at him. I wanted to know what I was to him. If I was his friend, his friend with benefits, his love interest, or his girlfriend.

"Do you want there to be an us?" Ricky asked, giving me his famous half smile. I loved his half smile, but I didn't want it right now. I wanted him to answer my question, not give me one of his own.

"Yes," I said levelly, preparing myself for any incoming emotional trauma. "I don't want to be just your friend. I don't want to be your friend with benefits, either."

"That leaves girlfriend," Ricky said.

"It also leaves love interest," I said.

"How is a love interest different from a friend with benefits?" Ricky asked.

"Love interests date and try to figure out if they can be more. Friends with benefits don't date, they boink."

"Boink?"

"Yeah, Benjamin had an issue with it, too."

"Ben stopped by?" Ricky asked.

"Yeah, earlier. Before Camelia's flowers arrived. Ben wanted to talk about something and he brought me a few things," I said, pointing to the flowers, teddy bear, and card.

"Interesting," Ricky said. I waited a second to see if he'd elaborate, but when he didn't, I sighed.

"Love interests," Ricky said.

"Huh?" I asked.

"Love interests," Ricky said. "That's what I want to be. I don't want to rush into a relationship and because this is already going to be complicated, I don't want us to mess anything up."

"Okay," I said, smiling.

"After you're able to walk without assistance, we'll have a date… uh, what exactly do people do on dates?" Ricky asked.

"You don't know what people do on dates?" I asked.

"I don't date," Ricky said.

"I know," I said, "but haven't you seen the movies?"

"Nobody ever has a successful date on screen," Ricky said. "Someone always gets a call in the middle and the date gets cut short, or someone gets hit, or the whole point is some guy that doesn't know how to date screwing up the first date."

I laughed a little, careful of my side, and said, "Dinner and a movie. It's a good combination. And if we see the movie first, it gives us something to discuss during dinner, or if we're seeing the movie after dinner, we can discuss current movies."

"How many dates have you been on?" Ricky asked.

I kind of hung out with Thomas, but there was only really one date in the whole time I'd known him. Technically, Grant and I went on two dates. I went on a few dates with a guy named Seth in grade eight, but that quickly ended after he called Amy a slut and I kneed him in the groin. I had a few other scattered dates after that, but none of them really panned out.

"A few," I said.

"Okay, what's the best date you've ever been on?"

Unfortunately, one of my best dates had been with Seth. Seth had planned out a whole evening for us, there had been an indoor film festival about an hour away by bus and he'd made reservations at a great restaurant, but it didn't work out like that. The bus broke down in some random town about a half an hour from the film festival and a half an hour from home with no buses coming or going from that place for three hours. We had to exit the busted bus, which wouldn't have been a bad thing normally, only that day it was raining worse than I'd ever seen it rain. Seth and I couldn't even call anyone because my cellphone was dead and his couldn't get reception. We had to make a run for some stupid little coffee shop, but it was closed because of the storm. No one wanted to go out in the damn rain, the only place open had been some dingy little motel where the cost to rent a room was dirt-cheap because the place was so crappy. Seth was easily able to pay and we spent the whole day in total misery at that place. We fell asleep and missed the earliest available bus back, too. We finally made it home after seven hours of being stuck in that town and eating out of vending machines, plus a half hour bus ride. I wasn't sure how that qualified as my best date ever. It just was. He put so much effort into the date and it all fell apart because of some crappy bus and a huge storm. The indoor film festival started at around three that day, too, I didn't make it home until well past ten. I just walked on in and nobody even noticed I left in the first place. Yeah, I really had no idea how that date was the best.

"Uhm, you probably wouldn't want to duplicate it," I said, grinning.

"Why?" Ricky asked.

"During the date, it was like the date from hell," I said, "but then after the date, it was hilarious and my favourite because both Seth and I survived it."

"What'd you do? Fight a war?" Ricky asked jokingly.

"Almost, that rain was like gunfire," I said, smiling.

"See, now you have me interested."

"Ricky, some things are better left unsaid," I said in my favourite all-knowing voice.

"Okay, can I at least know why you broke up with the guy?" Ricky asked.

"I wasn't really his girlfriend," I said, "I just went on a few dates with him. We stopped dating after I kneed him in the groin."

Ricky started laughing, "What'd you do that for?"

"He called Amy a slut, so that was the end of that."

Ricky continued laughing.

"And anyway, I'm pretty sure it was a mutual agreement never to date again after that," I said. "For me, because he insulted my family. For him, because I kneed him in the groin, and it's probably a guy rule that if a girl knees you in the groin in front of half the student body, you never ask her out again."

"Yeah, it probably is," Ricky said, shaking his head.

I smiled at him and said, "I like this."

"Like what?" Ricky asked.

"The privacy. We don't have everyone poking their noses in our business. The minute we tell people, that will all change. I'll miss it."

"We don't have to tell people if you don't want to," Ricky said. "It'll probably be better if we don't. We don't need to listen to people judging us until we're sure that there's even something to judge."

"So, secret love interests?" I asked.

"Secret love interests," Ricky said, and then he kissed me.


	9. The Date

I'm not sure how I feel about this chapter. I'm mixed on my opinions about it. There are certain aspects I like and others I don't. I had to change the landscape of the area the _Secret Life_ characters live in, but I felt it was necessary. You be the judge. Let me know if it's bad or if it's good.

**Disclaimer: I do not own Secret Life of the American Teenager. How many times must we go over this?**

* * *

**Ashley's Point of View**

I laughed as Ricky lightly blew behind my ear. It made me feel ticklish. I didn't realize I could feel ticklish there.

"We're going to be late," I reminded him.

"Can we be," Ricky asked, placing a kiss on my lips and then light kisses down my neck. "Please?"

"No," I said, but then gasped when he started sucking on my pulse point.

"Really?" Ricky asked.

"Five minutes." I was enjoying this feeling way too much.

I felt Ricky smile against my neck, and although I was glad he was smiling and not laughing at the position he had me in, I was a little ticked that he stopped.

"Jeez, Ash, only five?" Ricky said, joking, then continued his previous actions.

"Y-Yes," I stuttered out, pathetically, I may add.

Ricky smiled again and hopped off me, making the bed underneath me squeak.

"Come on," Ricky said, grinning. "We're going to be late."

I could have punched a wall. Never him.

I took a look at my hair in the mirror. It was a total mess. I had styled it in light, bouncy curls and now they were all over the place. That was what I got for buying environmentally friendly products, I guess.

"My hair is a mess," I complained.

"Yes," Ricky said, "but it still looks good."

I gave him a look. It did _**not**_ look good. I didn't know what he was seeing.

"How does it look good?" I asked.

"It shows that you're definitely with me," Ricky said simply.

"Or that I was too lazy to pick up a comb," I said, lightly organizing the curls back to their original place.

Ricky rolled his eyes, making sure I noticed.

When I was satisfied that my hair looked somewhat decent, Ricky and I left my bedroom.

I had been discharged from the hospital a week ago and I finally felt well enough to go on a date with Ricky. When he showed up though, things got a little interesting, since over the past week we hadn't gotten much alone time. With Amy in New York, and Mom and Dad also going on a date themselves, Ricky and I had taken the opportunity to make out for a few minutes, which turned into ten minutes, and then fifteen, then twenty, and so on until we really had to leave or we'd be late. I didn't plan on us going any farther than making out or some touching for a while, though. And if Ricky and I were going to have sex, I was planning on talking to him about it first. I didn't know if Ricky would be okay with 'no sex' once we actually became a couple, but I wasn't going to make it a problem unless it actually came up.

"Okay, so what's the surprise after dinner?" I asked once we were in the car.

"There's a reason it's a surprise, Ash."

"I hate surprises. They're like the apocalypse, nothing good comes from them."

"Okay, it's not a future apocalypse, a movie, or a monkey. There, I eliminated three things."

I sighed and said, "Not even a hint, one little hint?"

Ricky thought about it for a second and said, "Light."

"That's it? That's my hint? I could have gathered that much from a telephone pole."

"Too bad," Ricky said. "That's your hint."

I leaned back in my seat and tried to think of what the hint could possibly mean, but drawing a blank, I gave up.

"I'm getting nothing," I said.

"I know," Ricky said, grinning as he stopped at a red light.

I smiled nervously. Surprises usually didn't end well, especially for a Juergens. For the rest of the car ride we talked, the topics pretty simple in comparison.

"Relax, I'm taking you on a date, not kidnapping you," Ricky whispered, taking my hand in his and helping me out of the car, though I told him I didn't need it.

"I'm never relaxed. Can't you tell?" I asked once we made it inside the restaurant.

"Yes."

Inside, the restaurant was decorated in deep reds and blues. There were several paintings on the wall. Copies, not originals, as I recognized a few paintings from an art museum I had to visit on a sixth grade field trip. Chandeliers were placed evenly throughout the restaurant, emitting a beige glow, which contrasted beautifully with the deep red walls. The tables and chairs were made of a dark coloured wood, though none I could recognize on first sight. As the hostess led us to our table I recognized the kind of wood, not that it mattered a whole lot, it was slightly off-coloured mahogany. Slightly off-coloured woods were cheaper, usually because they didn't have that great an overall appearance, but these were pretty close to the real thing. I probably wouldn't have even noticed if my dad didn't sell furniture.

Ricky and I were brought to a table in the far right corner of the restaurant. We were right next to the window with a perfect view of the surrounding beach and pier. If we'd made our reservation for later, we could have watched the sunset after dinner. The sun usually didn't set until around 8:30, it being June and all. If we'd had reservations for seven, we could have gone for a walk and watched it. Our reservations were for 6:30, though. The latest we might leave would be around 7:30.

"Thank you," I said automatically to the hostess once she handed me a menu.

I nibbled on a small bread stick that had been in a basket on the table as I looked over the menu. There was a comfortable silence between Ricky and I, but it could soon turn awkward if we didn't find a topic. This was exactly why dinner and a movie worked so well. It gave topics, without topics we would have an awkward date. It was already awkward enough with the whole son's aunt/baby mama's sister thing.

Thankfully, saving me from having to think too much, there was a crash from a couple tables over. Everyone in the not-so-crowded restaurant looked over.

A man was yelling at his date, or lady friend, or whatever she was to him. The man was actually tossing things off the table. A couple at a nearby table got splashed with water, resulting in a shriek. That shriek led to the hostess walking over and asking what the commotion was. The man proceeded to insult her the same way he had his date. The man turned to yell at the nearby couple as well, and when he did I recognized him. I looked at his date, and sure enough, it was Veronica. The twenty-eight, now thirty-year-old waitress who'd helped me get a job using my fake ID. Veronica's date was her baby daddy that didn't pay a dime in child support and was an all around bad guy.

Veronica had given me advice on Amy, taught me a few things about caring for a baby, and had been a friend when I'd needed one. Although we hadn't talked in a while, I still felt like she mattered. I didn't like seeing this guy treat her badly when she really didn't deserve it, especially from him.

As I moved to get up, Ricky grabbed my arm and asked what I was doing.

"Going over there," I said. "What do you think?"

"Ashley, you don't know them. Don't get involved in their business."

"That's Veronica." I said, though I wasn't sure if I'd told him anything about her or not.

I shook my arm free and walked over. The whole way trying to come up with something to say, then, he hit her. Veronica started crying. That really got me angry. I walked up to him and decked him a good one. One of the good things about being a daddy's girl, I had a great right hook.

Veronica's date didn't fall, but he did stumble. It was then that I noticed the idiocy of my actions. Again, thankfully, Ricky was by my side in an instant followed by a big, burly guy dressed in the uniform a member of kitchen staff wears.

The burly guy swore at the guy in Italian and threw him out of the restaurant, literally. I turned around. _**Everyone**_ was staring at us. _**Everyone.**_ Veronica shook in her seat with silent sobs. I helped her over to the table Ricky and I had previously been occupying.

"Can you please bring us another chair and some ice?" I asked the burly guy.

"Sure thing, bella."

I crouched down to get a better look.

"Hey, Veronica, can I see?"

Veronica looked up at me and her eye was red and already beginning to swell. There was a cut just below her eye that was bleeding rather heavily. All in all, she'd have one hell of a shiner.

People were still looking at us. I wanted to tell them to go away. Veronica was embarrassed, and to be honest, I didn't feel too great either. My stomach was still a little sore and my hand was hurting. If I got sick, I didn't need the whole restaurant noticing.

Ricky noticed the uncomfortable atmosphere and kindly said, loud enough for everyone to hear, "They're fine. You can turn away now."

Everyone looked away but tried to subtly glance at us every few seconds. Ricky met each stare with a stare of his own.

The burly guy returned with a tray of ice and a cloth, and a chair.

"Thank you," I said.

I got back up and sat in a chair next to Veronica. Ricky sat across from us. Ricky looked like he was thinking about something. So, he knew about Veronica otherwise he'd be confused, but he didn't know much about her baby daddy.

"Look this way," I instructed Veronica. I took the cloth, wet it, and began gently cleaning the cut. When I was satisfied it was well cleaned, I took some ice and wrapped it in the cloth and began gently dabbing at her bruise. Veronica winced.

"What were you doing with him, Veronica?" I asked after she'd stopped crying.

Veronica took a deep breath and told me that her ex had begun playing a role in both her's and her son's life a few months ago. She'd decided to give him another chance. It was going well until last week when he'd caught her talking to the new bartender at work. In his mind, that meant she was cheating. Her ex was mad, so mad, but he didn't bother to talk with her about it. Instead, he bottled it up until it exploded and tonight, it did.

"I thought when you gave me those rings, it was over," I said.

Veronica had given me the rings from their relationship, saying she was getting rid of something she didn't need. I'd, in turn, given those rings to Amy for her 'wedding,' and now I wasn't sure where they were now.

Veronica put her head in her hands, flinched, and said, "Yeah, so did I."

"Did you drive here with him?" Ricky asked. "If you need a ride home, we can give you one."

"No, it's fine," Veronica said. "We took separate cars. I came directly from work and so did he."

"Are you sure you're okay to drive?" I asked.

"Yeah, the eye will be worse later, so I should probably go before it swells completely, though."

"You're sure?" I asked, still worried.

"Yes, I've imposed enough on your date."

"Don't worry about it," I said. "Ricky and I will probably have worse in the future."

"Ricky..." Veronica paused. "As in, Amy's Ricky."

"Kind of," I said.

"Huh."

"Uh huh."

"I should probably go," Veronica said, getting up.

"We'll walk you to your car," Ricky said.

"Thank you," Veronica said.

Ricky gave her a reassuring smile. When we passed the hostess, Ricky said, "We'll be right back. We're just walking her out."

Not really caring much for a response, we walked Veronica to her car. Before she got in, she hugged me and said, "Be careful."

I hugged her back. "You, too."

"I'm going back to my place, sending the babysitter home, and locking all the available doors and windows."

"Good. Call me later, around ten," I told her.

"Okay, I promise."

As she pulled out, Ricky asked, "Ready for dinner?"

"Yep."

We walked back into the restaurant and were pleasantly surprised to find everything clean. They worked fast. Some people stared at us as we walked back to our table, but at this point I didn't care much. I wanted to eat, get my surprise whether it was good or not, and hopefully have a decent date.

"That was crazy," Ricky said.

"I know. I thought she was over him. I really did, and then she went right back to him." I angrily bit into a bread stick.

"Do you think that's the first time he hit her?" Ricky asked.

"I don't know. She never mentioned it to me before, but how often do abused women tell people?"

"Not often. It depends on the circumstances they're in."

"I've only met the guy three times, including this encounter. I think she can do better."

"She can, but even if she does she'll have this guy to deal with for the rest of her life because they have a kid together."

"The lesson learned is be careful who you reproduce with."

I looked over my menu and saw a pasta dish I wanted to try, and like clockwork, a waiter came by to take our order.

"An iced tea and the cannelloni dish," both Ricky and I said and then looked at each other, grinning.

"Which one?" The waiter asked, and then began rattling off ways it could be served.

"Uh.. that one?" Ricky said to one of his suggestions.

"And you, Miss?"

"Uh, same."

The waiter wrote our order, took our menus, and left.

"I have no idea what I just ordered," Ricky said.

I started laughing, "Me neither."

"Next date, we stay in with a pizza, bag of popcorn, and DVDs."

"Deal," I said.

"That's good. It means I make it to date number two."

"A friend of mine got hit by her ex, I punched him, and we still have the whole restaurant sneaking sideways glances at us because of it. If anyone shouldn't get a second date, it should be me."

"No," Ricky said, "you were helping your friend. It shows that you're a good person."

"Even if I had to punch somebody to do it?"

"What can I say? There's something hot about a girl punching a guy, well, as long as I'm not the one getting clocked."

I laughed. Nothing like a few fists flying to break the ice.

**xXx**

"Okay, it's after dinner. Now can you _**please**_ tell me what the surprise is?" I asked.

"No," Ricky said. "You have to see it."

I rolled my eyes and let him lead me out of the restaurant, only we didn't go back to his car. We started walking on the beach. All we needed was the sunset and it would be perfect.

"What are we doing?" I asked.

"Walking," Ricky said.

"In heels?" I asked.

"Take them off. We're on the beach."

We stopped for a second so I could take the heels off. I held them as I walked, the tips hitting my side every now and again.

I wished for a camera. This would've made a really great picture. The curls in my hair had deflated slightly so there were some definite waves in my hair. The red lipstick I had been wearing originally had faded into more of a dark rose colour. My dress was long and flowy, a cross between orange, pink, and red. I looked great. Ricky did, too. His hair, of course, looked great. The white dress shirt was clean, bright, and it clung to him perfectly. I felt kind of jealous of how he looked in his clothes. I was never a perfect size anything.

After ten minutes of walking and talking, we stopped.

"Close your eyes," Ricky said.

"What?" I asked.

"Close them," Ricky said. "Don't you trust me?"

"I came out here, didn't I?" I said, closing my eyes.

Ricky wrapped an arm around my waist and said, "No peaking."

Being honest, I was absolutely trying to peak the entire five minutes I had to keep my eyes closed.

"How long do I have to keep my eyes closed?" I asked as we turned.

"Another minute, Ash, you're so impatient."

"Yes, impending doom does that to me."

"Alright, open."

I opened my eyes, they widened as I took in the sight before me. I felt my mouth spread into a smile.

"I take it the apocalypse is postponed another day?" Ricky asked.

In front of me was a lighthouse, the colour somewhere between yellow and white. The whole left side was decorated with seaweed. The right side held a few graffiti marks. Since before I could remember, I've always loved lighthouses. I had no clue why, there was just something about them. About people being lost and being guided by some giant light, something so simple, yet so essential to them.

Mimsy and I shared the love for lighthouses. The earliest memories I had of lighthouses were with Mimsy. A few were with Amy but after the first two lighthouse visits she got horribly bored and stayed home. Mom went sometimes, but only because the first few times Amy and I were too young for Mimsy to handle alone.

"Can we go inside?" I asked brightly.

"Yes," Ricky said.

The lighthouse had some aspects of an older, more rustic lighthouse, but also had some more modern touches. I was glad that it was a combination of both. Recent lighthouses were more computerized and lighthouses that weren't recently built were usually preserved by not-for-profit organizations because of their historical value. I preferred the ones built before 1900, but they didn't really have a place anymore. Some were closed off and others were used for tourism. What people didn't realize, though, was that by offering tours, charging money, and limiting the use, the beauty was lost. What good did tours do if people didn't stop to pay attention?

Ricky opened the door to the lighthouse for me and we stepped in.

I started climbing the steps, which surprisingly, did not creak. They must have been replaced or adjusted for safety.

"How did you know?" I asked, breathless, once we'd reached the top. I couldn't remember having told him about my love for lighthouses. I usually kept it to myself. I had a small picture of a lighthouse on my desk. Mom and Mimsy had taken it when I was three, the first lighthouse I ever visited. Mom had once said that the moment she saw how much I loved the lighthouse she knew I would give her trouble when I was older, I was Mimsy's granddaughter, alright. Other than the picture, there was nothing that could point to lighthouses.

The topmost floor of the lighthouse had been altered, but it was still beautiful. Usually on lighthouses there was a door that led to a balcony of sorts that was fenced around by some type of metal. This lighthouse had that, but the balcony was larger than would be expected. Therefore, the space near the door had to be filled. And it was, by an empty space that could be best described as a large, glassless window massive enough for me to sit on, and that was exactly what I did.

"Ben told me," Ricky said.

"How does he know?" I asked.

"Amy told him and when we were talking about you once he mentioned it."

"Talk about me often, eh, Ricky?" I asked, smiling.

"Yes," Ricky said, then to my smug grin said, "no. Kind of. There's no way I can answer this question without seeming like an idiot, is there?"

"Nope," I said, grinning brightly as the wind blew in my direction.

Ricky rolled his eyes and moved so he was standing next to me.

"Sunset," Ricky murmured and pointed.

I let my line of vision follow his finger to the sunset. The sun was setting early. The sun had turned a bright orange-red and the clouds around it had shaded to a gorgeous red and blue colour, the sky itself had turned into a pink mist. The weather, the skies, and the powers that be were working for me at the moment.


End file.
